Best greenhouse for beginners Product Description

Bell peppers (Capsicum annum L.) originate from central and south America. Their cultivation spread throughout Europe and Asia after the 1500's. Although perennial, they grow as annuals in temperate climates. Bell peppers are sensitive to low temperatures and relatively slow to establish. As there is little field production of bell peppers in Alberta, greenhouse production provides most of the local source of this product.
Steel frame greenhouse production of sweet bell peppers is based on indeterminate cultivars in which the plants continually develop and grow from new meristems that produce new stems, leaves, flowers and fruit. In comparison, field pepper cultivars are determinate; the plant grows to a certain size, produces fruit, stops growing and eventually dies.
Indeterminate cultivars require constant pruning to manage their growth. In order to optimize yield, a balance between vegetative (leaves and stems) and generative (flowers and fruit) growth must be established and maintained.
Greenhouse pepper production is based on a year-long production cycle. Typically, seeding occurs in early to mid-October, plants are moved from the nursery into the production greenhouses six weeks later, just before Christmas. Harvest begins in late March and continues through to the following November. It takes roughly four months from seeding to first pick.

Growing cycle

Greenhouse pepper production is based on a full year cycle (see Figure 3 below). The transplants go into the production greenhouse in approximately mid to late December at 6 weeks of age, the first pick of fruit begins in about late March, early April and continues to the following December.

The steel frame greenhouse are empty for only 2 or 3 weeks during the year to allow for the removal of the old crop, thorough cleaning of the greenhouse and setup of the greenhouse for the new crop.

One crop a year is grown. That is, production for the entire year is based on the same set of plants. As it takes approximately 20 weeks (4 months) from seeding the crop to first pick; as a result, growing more than one crop a year is not considered profitable.
Color Sweet Peppers Growing Film Greenhouse

In a commercial greenhouse, a wire is put up going from one end of the greenhouse to the other about 10 feet above the plants. Then individual plants are run up to the wire using twine. Plants will naturally climb the twine, but some training is done to make sure it stays climbing its assigned twine, and plastic ties are used to strengthen the plant.

The most common method of greenhouse growing with cucumbers is the Umbrella System. In this system, all side growth is pruned, leaving just the main stem growth until the plant reaches the top wire. Then, once the main stem reaches the wire, the topmost growth, or terminal bud, is removed and the last two lateral branches are allowed to grow sideways and downward.

The growth from these lateral branches will be allowed to hang down up to 3 feet from the ground. The main stem will also produce fruit, but the first 3-4 feet at the bottom will have been pruned to prevent more vegetative growth.

Another system that's gaining popularity is the High-Wire System, sometimes called the Hire-Wire System because it's more labor intensive.

In this system, the top wire is set higher, around 15 feet and the cucumber plant's top bud is allowed to grow until the top of the wire and then pruned back keeping all growth along the main stem.