Greenhouse for veg but it's mainly in the shade?

takhana

We've recently acquired a free greenhouse from a local couple on FB who didn't want it any more. Whilst our garden is fairly large compared to most and south facing; the 'useable' parts are fairly shaded because our neighbour has a 30ft fir tree in their garden which dominates ours with shade. The only practical place we could put the greenhouse was in the back corner directly opposite the fir tree, which means it is in full sun from around 11am to about 4pm (obviously time of year dependent) but my concern was that it would not pick up enough sun to ripen tomatoes off? I've read online somewhere that if the greenhouse doesn't get full sun constantly it's completely pointless which seems silly to me! 

We have a small veg plot about a metre to the side of where the greenhouse has been situated and last year grew tomatoes in the front corner of that, which ripened off fairly well but took a long time to do so. 

I was planning on putting some chillies that I've grown from seed (first time they've germinated!) and again was planning to put them in the greenhouse - but the shelving units would be on the opposite side to the tomatoes, which is a bit shadier as it's boxed in by the fence corner and has a elderflower tree over the top (now trimmed, but again in a neighbours garden, so we can't get rid of it for more light). 

Is it realistic to expect a good crop from both? Should I leave the chillies in the kitchen on the window sill (which, tbf gets about the same amount of light)? My hope for the greenhouse was that I could put some of the more sun and heat loving plants in there and free up some space in our little veg patch for the hardier bits. 

Kili

I'm in a similar situation where my greenhouse is shaded by the neighbours trees until about 11 am each day. The rest of the day the sun gets through and my tomatoes , cucumbers and peppers all grow well enough. i don't think full on sun is necessary on the greenhouse in fact most of us (me included) have to shade the greenhouse for protection form the sun in the summer. As long as light and warmth is getting through I think you should be okay.

takhana

Kili said:

I'm in a similar situation where my greenhouse is shaded by the neighbours trees until about 11 am each day. The rest of the day the sun gets through and my tomatoes , cucumbers and peppers all grow well enough. i don't think full on sun is necessary on the greenhouse in fact most of us (me included) have to shade the greenhouse for protection form the sun in the summer. As long as light and warmth is getting through I think you should be okay.

Thank you, that's really reassuring. I hadn't thought about doing the cucumbers in there but possibly might if there's room (I was going to do them in pots with my courgette and squashes, again to save veg patch space - I've gone a bit overboard on buying seeds this year and have about 40 things I want to try) for them. It's not the biggest greenhouse but certainly will do for some bits. Just looking out the window at it now and the bed we've put in for the tomatoes is in full sun at the moment, which should carry on until late afternoon so hopefully it'll be fine. 

purplerallim

Don't take last year as normal @takhana as there was low sunlight levels and outside toms took forever to ripen.
You don't say how big a greenhouse, that may curb how much you get in there.

This is my 10×12 . At the far end are my peppers,  over which are the cucumbers ( they are on clematis netting) in the warmest part of the greenhouse.  My greenhouse is overshadowed by an Ash tree till mid day, so I think you will be ok.😁
P.S. this was last year.😁

takhana

Beautiful greenhouse @purplerallim! I can only dream I don't think it helped last year that I didn't pinch any of the toms at all so they ended up resembling a jungle by August (first proper year of having a garden and veg patch so I had no idea what I was doing... I have 2% more idea now). It's a 6ft by 8ft apparently. I didn't realise you could grow cucumber on netting! 

Nanny Beach

Takhana,they are climber's and pretty heavy especially if you grow full sized ones,I'm not fancy they have chicken wire with a wooden frame

purplerallim

You think clematis netting is fancy @Nanny Beach blame pete8 it was his idea  😆
Cucumbers need heavy duty support @takhana mine grew 10 foot long on there.😁

purplerallim

As yours is a 6×8 then about 4 tubs each side, end one with two cucumbers in each ( enough cucumbers for you plus spares) and the other 6 would take 12 tomato plants( unless you wanted anything else 😁)

Kili

@takhana I've never had much luck with Courgettes in pots, very few courgettes when grown in pots unless its a huge container. If you have the space there best planted in the ground has been my experince.Why not do some in pots and some in the ground if you have space then you can compare as the season goes on.

takhana

Kili said:

@takhana I've never had much luck with Courgettes in pots, very few courgettes when grown in pots unless its a huge container. If you have the space there best planted in the ground has been my experince.Why not do some in pots and some in the ground if you have space then you can compare as the season goes on.

Oh, that's good to know but a bit disappointing - our veg bed is only 2m x 2m (roughly) so last year we managed to fit in 5 courgette plants, 1 squash plant (I thought I'd sown 3 courgette, 3 squash but my ADD brain had managed to sow 5 courgettes and 1 squash... they look too similar We had courgettes coming out of our ears), 1 very sickly cucumber that eventually gave us one palm sized fruit and 6 tomato plants. We have a corridor/channel down one side of the bed already planted up with garlic so I was hoping to avoid the big, sprawling courgette/squash plants in the patch if I could. But that's a good suggestion, I think I could definitely try one in a pot and one or two in the ground! I perhaps also need to get over the idea that everything I've sown needs to go into my own garden XD

I absolutely adore the idea of climbing the cucumbers, will definitely look into this further and get the OH to come up with some kind of support for them, we have some chicken wire lying around somewhere I think? and an old pallet in the garden that he could probably do something with... Engineers are very useful for that kind of thing! 

bertrand-mabel

Our polytunnel doesn't have all day sunshine and we have had it in the same place for over 15 years.

We are able to get great harvests of pak choi, kohl rabi, carrots (as they wont germinate outside), aubergines, tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, salad crops, chillies, peppers.

It is shaded early morning from a huge bramley apple tree and then later on by one of our quinces.

The produce has continued to be well worth the effort.