Your Geodesic Greenhouse Planting Guide!

So You CAN Have Continuous Year Round Harvests

Once you build a dome greenhouse that's when the fun really begins!  You want to feed your family fresh ripe veggies you grew yourself and keep feeding them all year long.  It’s a very exciting time for gardeners.

The biggest mistake new greenhouse gardeners make is to fill every inch of growing space with seeds right off the bat.

Photo Credit ClimbMt1@Flickr

Don’t fall into this trap.

If you plant 50 lettuce seeds all at the same time you’ll have 50 mature bunches of lettuce all at once!

Unless you are planning to feed an army or sell them this is probably not how you want to harvest your lettuce.  Your neighbors may thank you but your family may be sad when there’s no salad for a few weeks while you wait for the next batch of plants to mature.

If you want to harvest one bunch of lettuce each week you’ll need to plant one lettuce seed each week.

Now remember, you’ll need to plant more than one seed each week for each bunch of lettuce (or other plant) you want to harvest because not all seeds will germinate.  A good rule of thumb is 3 seeds per plant you want to grow.  Then after sprouting thin them to the desired number.

So if you want to harvest one plant each week and it takes 12 weeks to harvest time, you will always have 12 plants growing in every stage of development.  It’s also acceptable to plant two bunches every other week or four on the first of each month. 

How many you plant at a time depends on your schedule, storage method for harvested food etc.  As a rule though, if you want the freshest veggies on your table weekly plantings work the best.

Where to plant is equally important inside your greenhouse.  Remember that north of the equator, the sun is usually in the south part of the sky at noon.  That means everything casts a shadow on its north side.  So it’s best to plant in north south rows beginning on the north end and planting south as the weeks go by.

Photo Credit Phil And Pam Flickr.com

Use your judgment when replanting harvested plants.  As a rule, there should be plenty of space between the plants harvested so that new plantings will not be shaded by maturing plants further south in the row.  If this will not be the case start a new row elsewhere.

To get the most satisfactory result make a planting sketch before you place an order from the seed catalog.  Sketch out where the plants will go with appropriate spacing, remembering not to shade small plants with tall ones.

Doing this will insure you get what you want from your geodesic dome greenhouse.  You won't waste money on seeds you don’t need.  Before you know it, you’ll be harvesting year round like a pro.



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