The frontiersman., 1963-07-11
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UNIVERSITY Of ALASKA Cooperative Extension Service Division of Statewide Servtces

AN n question box is loaded with requests for information on Alaska's number one and two greenhouse crops, tomatoes and cucumbers.
 Before we start on these. let me keep my promise to the Ar ctic Circle gardeners at Vene- tie, Chalkyitsik and Ft. Yukon and say hello to everyone down here in the Banana Belt. The people up there have the laugh on us. They raise the same vegetables we do down here, and do it in less than 90 days. We don't fool around up here", they say. Tt gives us more time for fish ing"
 Speaking of tomatoes in greenhouses, I've seen some mighty fine ones grown from Venetie, North of the Circle, down to Ketchikan in South eastern Alaska. The secret of course, is proper management.
 Some peoples trouble starts with variety selection. There are two principal types called Determinate and Indetermin- ate. The first stops growing tall of it's own accord and is us- ually grown outside where space is not problem. The greenhouse type grows tall and of course saves precious bed space. Extension Bulletin No. ', Vegetable Varieties List' and Extension Circular No. 455, Greenhouse Toma- toes For Alaska, will give you some dependable varieties to choose from.
 The home greenhouse oper- ators should not expect max imum crop of either tomatoes or cucumbers when these vege- tables are grown together, be- cause of slightly different re- qulrements. Tomatoes do best at temperatures between 700 75' F., with night temperatures about 10o cooler. Cucumbers, on the other hand, like to have the greenhouse 5 10' warm CT, and less change at night.
 Both vegetables like an even supply of water. Blossom-end rot of tomatoes is caused by uneven watering Most every one knows what it looks like, but only a few realize how easy it is to control. Good ven tilation and temperature con- trol, combined with uniform watering, will go a long way toward elimination of Blos- som-end rot.
 Leaf mold causes serious loss of tomato production. Re sistant varieties are the best preventative, but our impor- tant friend-ventilation-also helps to reduce the fungus ger mination
 Tomatoes are perfectly flow cred so it only takes a sharp jar of the plant to loosen the ripe pollen and insure fruit set.
 Cucumbers are quite differ ent, because they have both male and female flowers. This gives us the clue to many poor crops. Each female blossom must be fertilized by pollen from male blossom. This may be done with a fine cam els hair brush. Another way is to pick the male blossom, re- move the petals and touch this to the center of the female bloom. The female is easy to tell, because it has a tiny cu- cumber at its base. This little pickle" will not develop un- less fertilized.
 Now we come to the catch in the whole process. The male blooms not only come first, but few females will form if the greenhouse is kept too cool. It is not unusual to have a very few female blooms until late June or early July. By that time there may be a short age of male blossoms.
 A good solution is to get the greenhouse warmed up early, and let the female blooms form. Later in the season hold the temperature a little lower, which will allow the cucum- bers to grow and also favors the tomato production.
 It takes a lot of fertilizer to grow a full crop of anything in greenhouse because the amount of soil where plant roots can forage is very limit ed Keep an eye out for any