For most allotment gardeners, cultivating vegetables in a greenhouse for self-sufficiency has become a matter of course. The yields no longer depend on the weather and are usually higher than outdoors. And: Growing it yourself is fun and saves a lot of money.

Vegetables can be grown in the greenhouse all year round

For growing vegetables in a greenhouse, you can use simple and inexpensive ones small foil greenhouses excellent use, although they are usually not even heated. Proper ventilation and air and soil thermometers are enough to successfully grow all types of vegetables that are common in our latitudes.

Benefits of greenhouse vegetables

The fact that home-grown vegetables taste better than those from the supermarket shelf is due to the fact that they are harvested when fully ripe and do not lose their characteristic flavors and essential vitamins through long transport routes and weeks of storage. With constantly rising prices for many types of vegetables, growing them yourself also brings a noticeable relief to the household budget.

With own vegetable cultivation three harvests a year

At least, it still has to be added, both in heated and unheated greenhouses, if you know about the optimal crop rotation and use it. We know about that basically three types, which have proven themselves over many years in the Central European latitudes:

  • Spring crops: ice lettuce, cut lettuce and lettuce, radish, kohlrabi and radishes;
  • Summer crops: peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, hot peppers, beans and aubergines;
  • Winter crops: cress, spoonwort, spinach, endive, kale and radishes;

If heating is available, spring planting of vegetables in the greenhouse can begin from mid-February, and in the cold house from the beginning of March.

Alternating crop rotation provides variety

As in the field, both crop rotation and crop rotation should also be considered. The different plant families do not unnecessarily burden the greenhouse floor and protect the vegetable plants from pest invasions and diseases. If the main crops are not always to be in the same place every year, it is best to divide the greenhouse into different plots in which the vegetable plants then move with each new growth. The targeted creation of mixed cultures has also proven itself.

Mixed culture of vegetables in the greenhouse

This means planting different types of vegetables on a bed, either in rows or in groups. With good neighbors the available space can be better utilized and those who do it particularly cleverly will even increase their harvest yields with suitable helper plants.

tips

Especially the owners of smaller greenhouses (77.12€) often tend to plant very tightly in order to actually use every spot. Understandable, but it has to be considered that vegetables are isolated in the greenhouse, grow relatively quickly at short intervals and there is no air circulation as it occurs in nature. Therefore, it is better to allow slightly larger planting distances to counteract harmful heat build-up in summer.

Category:

Garden design