Hydroponic and Organic Gardening

Now we’re ready to discuss specific cultivars.Greenhouse tomatoes are generally grown from F1 seeds. Beefsteak cultivars include Blitz F1, Match F1, Matrix F1, Geronimo F1, and Trust F1. These cultivars produce large tomatoes in the half-pound range.
Cluster or truss tomatoes are four or five ounces in weight and grow with three to seven fruit attached to the truss. They keep for a fairly long time and have a little tougher skin than do beefsteak tomato fruit. Cultivars include Tradero F1, Clarance F1, and Ambiance F1. If you are interested in small tomato cultivars, Dasher F1 is a grape tomato and Flavorita F1 and Conchita F1 are cherry tomatoes.

Greenhouse cucumbers are seedless F1 hybrids. The seeds in the fruit produced are not developed and are not viable. The only way to get seeds for a seedless cucumber cultivar is to purchase the F1 seeds from the seed producer or a distributor.

There are a variety of popular cucumber cultivars, each of which can be grown at a different time of the year. Accolade F1 is a European-type cucumber cultivar that will grow during the time of year when there are lower light levels. It is not tolerant to powdery mildew and, therefore, should not be grown during the summer when mildew spores are more prevalent. Camaro F1 is a newer cultivar that will grow well in the low light period of the year and has partial powdery mildew tolerance so that it can be grown during the summer as well. Discover F1 is a powdery mildew-tolerant cultivar that should not be grown through the low light period.

Mini cucumbers are seedless but more the size of the traditional garden cucumber. Manar F1 is a powdery mildew-tolerant cultivar that should not be grown through the low light period. Jawell F1 is a newer cultivar that is partially powdery mildew-tolerant and can be grown through the summer as well as low light periods.

Moving on to pepper plants, most any cultivar of hot pepper can be grown in the greenhouse fairly easily. Bell peppers grown in the greenhouse, however, will require a little more attention and manipulation of the fertilizer program to achieve success. Greenhouse cultivars of bell peppers are now available, although just a few years ago, selections of field cultivars were used in the greenhouse for bell pepper production. Since then, a number of bell pepper cultivars have been developed in various colors. There are, however, no green pepper cultivars. Green bell peppers are picked from red or yellow bell pepper plants before they ripen. A bell pepper fruit, unlike a tomato fruit, will not ripen or continue to ripen once it has been removed from the plant.

Red bell pepper cultivars include Cubico F1 and Hawaii F1. Kelvin F1 and Lesley F1 are yellow cultivars and Paramo F1 is orange. These cultivars have all been bred and selected for greenhouse
production.

Eggplant and okra can be grown in the greenhouse. They will both produce fruit over a period of time once they start fruiting. Neither crop is a big greenhouse commercial crop in the United States. Although some greenhouse Eggplant cultivars have been developed, you may want to try your favorite garden cultivar first. No specially adapted okra greenhouse cultivars, however, have been developed for greenhouse production.

Squash of the yellow straight neck and zucchini types can be grown in the greenhouse. The typical field cultivar is a bush plant that will produce over a short period of time. A few new cultivars that will produce over a longer period of time in the greenhouse have been developed, but seeds for them can be difficult to obtain. In a squash plant the main stem of the plant continues to grow for an extended period of time. Fruit continues to be produced as the main stem grows, but be aware of the space needs of this plant when planning your greenhouse plant layout.