If you owned a greenhouse, what would you grow?

Green tomatoes.

I’m sorry, but I feel compelled to say Marijuana.

Chillis, peppers and tomatoes will be on the top of my list with differing species.

I need more help than that ya’ll. Are the tomatoes shelved or planted in the dirt? How much space is devoted to a particular plant? Mary Jane gets the north side, and tomatoes on the south? Chillis, peppers… potted or planted in dirt?

Plumeria, asparagus, habañero, and salvia.

Mushrooms and strawberrys.

Flowers…every kind imaginable.I’ve always wanted to try orchids.
I’d have to grow tomatoes too :)
My neighbor owns a greehouse.I will ask him about it for you if I see him :)

@Blackberry I agree. Weed and spinach.

@AstroChuck Salvia, yeah?

Thanks much. Do you know what is best suited for pots on shelves vs planted in the ground? Can flowers be mixed alongside with the other stuff?

@DarkScribe The good kind?

If I owned this hypothetical greenhouse I would also contribute 10–20% of my harvest (just the spinach, that is…) to the homeless/impoverished.

@jfos The good kind?

Yes, the good kind – not gold tops or blue meanies. ;)

I love mushrooms, grow them all the time, they are easy to grow and expensive to buy. Strawberries are a favourite of my wife.

@DarkScribe Portabellos or Psilocybins?

Mostly Triffids…. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triffid

I would have beets, cucumber, watermelon, grapes, and pumpkin.

@shego…... but none of them can eat people!

tobacco

@jfos_Portabellos or Psilocybins?_

Shiitake and portobello plus a local species that I have not identified.

@JeffVader true, so I guess I need to add tomatoes so the cartoon I use to watch “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” can come to life.

@shego Hahahahahahahaha, oh god, I’d totally forgotten about that movie!!!! If I remember correctly there’s an early appearance from George Clooney in it :)

So now I hope I can get Earthworm Jim
to come and visit.

Tamatoes, strawberries, and flowers.

Is this for your own use or for commercial enterprise?

Herbs,then I would always have fresh. Strawberries would be a must have.

Everything I could jam in there.

But vegetables herbs would be on the top of the list.

@cazzie
I’m currently looking for a new photo studio. I came across a property available across the street from the Missouri Botanical Garden in old South St. Louis. The building is a live/work environment with studio front and apartment above. The green house is attached to the back of the building and my first inclination was to use it for a natural light portrait studio.

But now that I’m getting closer to final decision, I can’t help but think the green house should be best utilized for what it was intended for. My mental fantasy image is probably not feasible in reality, but I envision a room that can be used for photography, and grow food and beauty items. No, I don’t plan to sell anything, food or flowers. But I’m not totally against the idea. The front space is a store front where my art gallery/studio would be. Not out of line to sell flowers in that space as well.

I don’t really know how to put it all together yet. Just considering all the options. The green house may be best left to private endeavors. I just don’t know what’s possible with it yet.

Any suggestions?

Now that I look at the size, and hear what you’re doing, I’d probably keep it for personal use. Flowers are lovely props and expensive to buy, so growing some nice ones for studio use would be great, so I’d go for some colourful, easy to grow flowers and some delish produce that you love but is expensive in your area.
I’ve just changed a commercial property into a retail store/soapmaking factory. It was sooo fun! Still lots of work to do, but it’s been a great first month.
Good luck!

If it were my greenhouse, I would definitely put in tables and forget the dirt floor. This will be easier on your back and way more convenient to work, and you can use the space underneath for empty pots, bags of soil, sprays, whatever.. even a place to put potted seeds you’re starting (at least until they begin to sprout and need sunlight).

That said, I would quickly obtain a medical marijuana card (I’d have it by now, but I’ve been broke) and grow a nice crop, along with whatever I felt like, like tomatoes and flowers and such. Keep in mind that while a greenhouse will stay warmer than ambient temps, if you’re trying to grow things off-season, you’ll need supplemental light to make up for the lack of day hours.

Anyway, I’m kinda jealous. I want a greenhouse! :)

Yeah… I forgot to say…. I’m jealous too. Just because I live in a frozen hell and miss inexpensive fresh produce….

You are fortunate in having quite a large greenhouse. Keep it vented for the air to circulate. I would grow lots and lots of tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, peppers on one side, and use the other side for your flowers, both annual and perennial.
Shelving does help as it saves you having to bend when tending your plants, but I wouldn’t say you needed to replenish your soil.
My greenhouse is full of lavatera, coreopsis, cosmos, lobelia, marigolds, bidens etc. These are all annuals.

Thanks for the advice @MissAnthrope and good luck with your business model @cazzie.

I’ve always wanted a green house as well. But actually walking through it causes reality to set it. It needs some new glass panels and seems to be a high maintenance room. All the ventilation gears are working properly, but if one broke, I wouldn’t begin to know where to get an item like that fixed. Looks like a regular routine glass sealing would need to take place.

The fantasy is nice, and I’m very much drawn to it. But reality of maintaining such a room might be more than I give credit to. I don’t want it to distract from my real business.

Thanks @partyparty. I have much to learn, (if I get the space). How much maintenance is required for the green house? Can plexiglass be used to replace broken panels? The ventilation is natural. Two large boat cranks lift half of the ceiling panels open and two others open the side panels. It’s really cool to see an entire 30’ wall just open up. Is there any reason to install fans or heaters? No electric currently. It is very very old.

Blackberry, you know its illegal to grow marijuana, right? right? right?

@MissAnthrope I thought the medical maryjane license to grow required a great deal of security measures. I’d be very concerned with getting the place vandalized. It is all visible from the sidewalk and I’d hate to put up a fence.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Well I am in the UK, and the seeds I have planted are only small at the moment, so I put a heater on each evening, as the temperature goes quite low. Once your annuals are established and the weather improves you can plant them outside.
With the tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, peppers, you can continue to grow them under glass. Sorry I don’t know what plexiglass is. Good luck it sounds very exciting.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies – I haven’t looked into it much, being that I don’t have a place to grow and won’t for a while. A friend of my mom’s in Oregon had terminal cancer and got a medical card for for kicks and grew a mind-blowing crop in the greenhouse. I don’t think I’d be comfortable growing it in plain view of the world, regardless of laws, though.. I would figure out some sort of privacy screen, maybe build my own little ramshackle greenhouse with wood and plastic sheeting.

@john65pennington: You might have heard people talking about “we need to enforce the laws we already have.” Obama has decided not to enforce many of the federal drug laws on marijuana so while it is against the law the law isn’t being enforced.

crab grass

@MissAnthrope

This question was worth asking just to hear the word “ramshackle” again. Haven’t heard that in years. It is sure to become my new overused word of the week. Thank you.

I guess right now it would depend where this greenhouse is located. What state it’s in legal or non. Then I would choose plants.

Money

Silly. Everyone knows that money doesn’t grow on trees. It’s mined.

@srtlhill: Are you also inferring you would grow marijuana if it was in a state not enforcing the marijuana laws?

@AstroChuck @Mike_Hunt: It has been a long time since money was “mined” and we had a gold standard. Now the Federal Reserve imagines the money into being.

@AstroChuck No one ever said it doesn’t grow in greenhouses lololo

@malevolentbutticklish – I’m pretty sure that applies only to medical marijuana, not regular usage. From what I understood of the policy change, Obama said he didn’t want to spend any more federal money, time, or energy going after patients whose doctors recommended marijuana, that he would allow the states that have medical marijuana laws to oversee and police these programs

@MissAnthrope: That statement is flawed since medical users don’t (generally) grow their own.

@malevolentbutticklish – Um, I beg to differ, particularly as I was quite interested in the policy change when announced and did my reading on it. Do I have to bust out my Google-fu?

Seriously, though, the medical marijuana cards I’ve seen (in various states) allow a certain number of vegetative plants, a # of flowering plants, as well as a dried holding limit. I would bet more people are growing than you think.

@MissAnthrope: Medical marijuana dispensaries exist and are used by “large” numbers of people. That means people have to grow marijuana to service them in the states which allow them.

@malevolentbutticklish – Other people grow for dispensaries. You could not grow enough with a medical marijuana card to sufficiently supply a dispensary. The amounts allowed with a card are sufficient for personal use and are intended for personal growing, not for later sale. Now, if you want to grow for a dispensary, you can get permits and such, but it is entirely separate from the medical card. That is how it is in CA, and trust me, I’ve researched it because it’s something I want to do. My friend is a lawyer and her husband is a judge, I have discussed the growing for dispensaries thing with the judge and it is a matter of permits.

In other states, it varies. I believe it’s Michigan that just legalized medical marijuana, and they have something called a “caregiver allowance” which permits someone to grow pot for someone with a medical card, in other words growing for sale/gift to other patients. This does not cover selling to dispensaries.

@MissAnthrope: So you agree with my statement then! Pretty much anyone can grow in those states for “sale/gift”. These federal drug laws are ignored and unenforced like our growing body laws which are applied inconsistently or not at all.

@malevolentbutticklish – You were talking about selling to dispensaries. I am talking about selling directly to patients. Where is the disconnect in understanding?

@MissAnthrope: “From what I understood of the policy change, Obama said he didn’t want to spend any more federal money, time, or energy going after patients whose doctors recommended marijuana” <== the disconnect is that you seem to exclude everyone who isn’t a patient from the marijuana law enforcement changes. Now (w/permit) anyone can grow pot patient or otherwise in these states.

Yes, in the medical marijuana states. I took your original post to be broad and encompassing the nation, not only individual states.

Anyhoo.. back to greenhouses?