Figure 11.—A good small greenhouse for plant growing.
The Place to Grow Plants
For northern climates, greenhouses are practically required. Canneries or other large growers, have wide houses similar to those used for winter maturing crops. A market gardener may have a little house of 10´ × 20´ to 20´ × 60´ or larger as needed. If one does not object to some inconvenience and discomfort, a hotbed may be used—heated with hot water or electricity, or as in years past, with fermenting manure. Cold frames may be covered with glass sash as in the case of hotbeds, or cloth may be used. There are also materials consisting of wire cloth filled with cellulose film. Special mats of straw or of quilted burlap may be used for extra cover and large growers often employ coarse manure, straw or marsh hay.
Many a tomato gets its start in life in a small flat in a kitchen window—perhaps, in a cigar box. Such seedlings may then be carried forward in hot bed or cold frame.
Beds, Flats and Pots
Growing plants directly in ground beds in the greenhouse and directly in the soil in the hotbeds or cold frames, is rather common. However, the use of flats or plant boxes in plant growing offers a number of advantages as compared with planting in the bed. Transplanting can be done at benches under conditions of comfort and convenience which make for efficiency. Moisture can be more precisely controlled and flats can be shifted if some plants grow faster than others. Plants can be moved with more dirt on the roots, and this is a great advantage when plants are sold and hauled some distance, though, of course, pulled plants are handled more cheaply. On the other hand, the first cost, and the maintenance and storage of the flats must be considered. Flats may be set on the ground in the greenhouse without use of benches.
Flats are of many dimensions, ordinarily six to ten per sash or about 18 × 22 inches or 13 × 18 inches outside measure. They may be made of lumber from used boxes, but they ought to be uniform in size and made to fit beds without loss of space. The more durable kinds of wood, cypress or chestnut are preferred. Some growers make the bottoms of the flats of square-mesh galvanized screen (hardware cloth), about five or six meshes to the inch. This allows roots to penetrate the soil of the beds, permits root pruning by shifting, and there is no wooden bottom to rot.
Some growers use clay pots for plants which are receiving special care. Their cost is an obstacle though they are used repeatedly. Such pots also hold less soil for the area occupied than flats or square [dirt bands].
