The cold wind has all but blown away the memory of the taste of summer's vine-ripened vegetables and fruits. But with a greenhouse, crops like peppers and tomatoes can be grown year- round. If you have a small greenhouse, consider small-scale production of petters or tomatoes.
Most growers use a soilless mix, which had the advantage of being lightweight and disease-free.
But because soilless media do not provide or store nutrients, these must be supplied as either a slow-release fertilizer or, more commonly, in the water applied to the greenhouse plants. Although seed can be sown in late summer for early winter production, fruit produced during months of low light conditions are often small or deformed. Supplemental light can be used to improve fruit quality during months with limited light, but this adds to the cost of production. See the sidebar below for a more cost-efficient production schedule which does not require artificial lighting and involves only on pepper crop per year. A daily application of fertilizer solution is recommended.