Zone 3 Poly Greenhouse Setup & 90 Tomato Varieties | Eugenia Diary

Hello fellow tomato addicts!I thought long and hard about whether I should start my own grow log. I was worried it might be a bit arrogant—I’ve barely been on the forum for a minute and I’m already opening a diary. 😳

I’ve been lurking and secretly reading your posts for two years, but I never had the courage to write. I just feel like I don’t have anything useful to share yet…

But I finally decided to go for it! At the very least, it’s a great way to get to know you all better. 😉 And honestly, I will be incredibly grateful for your expert advice! For three seasons now, I’ve been stepping on the exact same rakes. And let me tell you, the rakes I step on are rare, collectible heirlooms! 🤣

Alright, let’s start from the beginning…

This will be my fourth tomato season. Hooray! I can’t wait!
I grow my tomatoes in polycarbonate greenhouses, and only just tried growing outdoors in the dirt last year. Interestingly enough, the outdoor ones did way better than the greenhouse ones…

Year 1: I planted way too late. The greenhouse installers completely screwed us over. We ordered and paid in February, but they didn’t finish building them until late June. As a result, I had to plant these sad, leggy, stunted seedlings, burying their stems in spirals. And behold, my highly anticipated harvest: 210 lbs (95 kg) of premium GREEN tomatoes in September from 120 plants. 🤦‍♀️ Total heartbreak.

Year 2: I prepped like crazy. I read all the smarty-pants books, scoured the forum threads, browsed a million websites, and drove to the garden in spring bursting with positivity to plant my tomatoes.
Result: I completely fried them! 😂 True, almost all of them bounced back pretty fast, only losing one plant. So, the weather is great, the tomatoes are growing, and my greenhouse slowly turns into an absolute jungle! They got massive nitrogen toxicity (all leaves, no fruit) and started dropping blossoms like crazy. 😭 I hit them with Monopotassium Phosphate, I sprayed them with every blossom-set spray I could find, but they didn’t care! Eventually, they sorted themselves out and set a bunch of huge, gorgeous tomatoes on the upper trusses. I had to pull some green, but they counter-ripened perfectly indoors.

Year 3: Winter passes in a blur of studying tomato guides and hunting for answers. I thought, “Okay, Season 3, I am fully armed and ready!!!” I was absolutely certain I was going to bury my family in tomatoes!
I picked a cool, overcast day, planted the tomatoes, and… fried them again! I mean, why would I ever assume the sun might come out the very next day? 🤣
Once again, the vines grew into absolute beauties, I couldn’t stop staring at them. But soon, the nightmare repeated itself: nitrogen toxicity and blossom drop. Back to fighting the same battle.
Obviously, the harvest this year was significantly better, but seeing those empty 1st and 2nd bottom trusses was like salt in the wound. I ended up pulling a personal record of 770 lbs (350 kg). But I had a lot of plants. And I harvested a bunch of them at the breaker/blush stage just to take the weight off the trusses.

And here we are—Season 4! I really don’t want to get heartbroken over the same rookie mistakes again! So I’m reading, prepping, and deciding to share my process with you all. Maybe some kind souls will point out where I’m messing up…

Seed starting season is right around the corner. My seedlings are a whole other tragic song… They constantly get leggy. It’s just way too hot in my house and I can’t get the temperature down, short of buying a dedicated AC unit. I’ve already gotten some great tips in another thread, so I’ll be trying those!

For now… I am slowly finalizing my grow list. Initially, I planned strictly for 68 plants in the greenhouses, and absolutely no more. But… 90 varieties have already been approved, one plant each. And I still need to squeeze in 20 more. Right now, this tomato math is the biggest problem in my life. 🤣🤣🤣

Hey Zhenya!
Don’t worry, you’ll figure it out soon and everything will go smoothly.
How exactly are you prepping your soil before you plant in the greenhouse? What amendments did you add? What did you water with?

Svetlana, thank you for stopping by!!! 🌺My first season, I didn’t add anything. My second season, I added double superphosphate and a little bit of wood ash (ash is a rare commodity for me right now). I also added some AVA fertilizer.

Last season, I got scolded on the forum, so I didn’t add a single thing. The issue is that my beds have a heavy layer of peat in them. But it’s not pure peat—it’s mixed with sapropel (lake mud). It’s highly possible that there’s just way too much sapropel in there causing the nitrogen spike.

This season, I plan to add double superphosphate and potassium sulfate. I read in Elena’s log that nitrogen toxicity can actually be triggered by a potassium deficiency, even if the nitrogen levels in the soil are normal. And where would excess nitrogen even come from if I’m not adding any? Plus, right after I treated them with Monopotassium Phosphate last year, they immediately started setting fruit. So I figured a little potassium in the planting hole wouldn’t hurt.

Zhenya, hi!! Congrats on opening your diary home!! I wish you an incredibly successful gardening season, may everything grow perfectly and exceed your expectations!! 🌺

Happy diary housewarming! 🌺
I’m only going into my third season… which means I still have so much ahead of me…. 😂

Oksana, thank you so much!
What exactly is ahead of you? More rakes to step on? 😂

Either a bunch of little rakes, or one giant massive rake! 🤣

Here is my officially approved list for the greenhouses in 2018. I’ll bold the ones I absolutely loved and am repeating. (Sorry, I usually just write the translated Russian names for my own sanity!)1. Fakel
2. Pum Rim
3. Work Release Paste
4. Lyudmilka
5. Belmonte
6. Yasha Yugoslavian
7. Yusupovskiye
8. Babushkino
9. Early Bull’s Heart
10. Baklazhan
11. Mikado Black
12. Dmitriev’s Orange Giant
13. Tarasenko’s Jubilee
14. Golden Autumn
15. Colorful Plum
16. Verkiny
17. Saratovskiye
18. Black Krim
19. Carol Chyko’s Big Paste
20. Altai White
21. Andizhanskiye
22. Iceberg
23. Night Candle
24. Chudo-Yudo
25. Lenny and Grace Kentucky
26. Weary Sun
27. Scooby
28. Canary
29. Golden Fang
30. Tomatoberry
31. Cherry Morocco
32. Summer Sun
33. Aunt Swarlo’s Polish Plum
34. Abkhazia Pink
35. Da Chilo
36. Tarasenko’s Polessky Giant
37. Gopak
38. Cuban Pepper-Like Black
39. Japanese Black Truffle
40. Black Russian
41. Natasha’s (from our neighbor)
42. Minusinsk Large (from Aunt Valya)
43. Kazakh Yellow
44. Minusinsk Bulls
45. Alyona Lux
46. Yaponka
47. Italian Sweet
48. Sayanogorsk Giant
49. Minusinsk Long
50. Vater Rhein
51. Abakan Triangular
52. Samye Luchshiye (The Very Best)
53. Svetla’s Large
54. Korean Long
55. Taiko
56. Florentine Beauty
57. Grandpa’s Cock’s Plume
58. Yellow Scallops
59. Gonsiorovskiye Family Hearts
60. African Vining
61. Ladoshka
62. Marek’s Pointy Heart
63. Corazon de Toro
64. Margareto
65. Big Raspberry
66. Reinhard’s Chocolate Heart
67. Barry’s Crazy Cherry
68. Broken Heart
69. Ruby Stars
70. Don Cossack
71. Monkey Ass
72. Calf’s Heart
73. Italian Delicacy
74. Mrs. Schlaumbach’s Famous Strawberry
75. Lithuanian Crested Pink
76. Longhorn
77. Huge Plum (Potato Leaf)
78. Polish Pink
79. Provenzano
80. Geranium Kiss
81. Reinhard’s Purple Heart
82. Peruvian Home
83. Syzran Ladies’ Fingers
84. Pear Orange
85. Yellow Rocket
86. Figurniy
87. Hartsack Yellow
88. Guido
89. Klara
90. Amur ConeSo there it is… and now I somehow have to squeeze 20 more in. Maybe I’ll evict the peppers from the middle bed? 🤷‍♀️ Though… if that thought is already in my head, the decision is basically already made. 😂

Zhenya, that “how to fit 20 more” problem affects many of us, if not all of us!
I saw “Golden Autumn” bolded on your list—tell me, why did you like it so much? I really want to plant it this year too.

Meri said:
I saw “Golden Autumn” bolded on your list—tell me, why did you like it so much?

I grew Golden Autumn the year before last. Despite the intense heat, the blossoms set perfectly, and it turned out to be one of my heaviest yielders! 👍 And I loved the flavor—very sweet, not bland at all. It’s my favorite flavor profile!

Oh Zhenya, if I were you, I wouldn’t even bother planting outdoors at all. Having two big greenhouses like that, why even mess with the dirt? You’ll have plenty of time to test varieties, and honestly, it’s always better to plant at least 2 vines of each variety. Fewer plants mean better care, hardening off, covering, etc. What size are your greenhouses anyway?

Thanks, name-twin! 🌺
My hoop houses are 10×26 ft (3×8 meters). I have two of them! And yeah, I plan to cram everything inside.Zhenya, I totally understand where you’re coming from about planting 2 per variety. That was my original plan. But then a “kind person” (who originally infected me with this tomato-hoarding virus) led me astray. 😂
At this point, it’s a lost cause—my hands are shaking, I can’t stop. I want to grow everything all at once!

Good afternoon, Evgeniya! I always figured if our greenhouses in Chelyabinsk get brutally hot, then at least up in Tyumen it should be tolerable… Judging by your post, apparently not!Here are the heat-reduction measures I use:
First, I installed stick-on thermometers right inside the doors at both ends, so I can see the brutal reality every day. In the peak of summer, it routinely maxes out past 122°F (+50°C).
To cool the soil, I highly recommend sowing mustard seeds between the tomatoes. It acts as a living mulch (though you will have to give it a haircut a few times a season).
Additionally, from the day I plant until harvest, I keep both doors and all 4 gable vents open for cross-ventilation 24/7. Even in cold summers, I only shut them if there is an active frost warning or a prolonged cold snap. Experience shows they are perfectly fine.My greenhouse is 10×20 ft (3x6m). Since yours are 26 ft (8m) long, you should definitely install extra roof vents. A 55-gal water barrel inside helps too—it adds humidity and gives you warm water for irrigation.

You have a very interesting grow list! I’m curious about Black Krim, how did it do for you? I’m struggling with my own tomato math right now. I have 44-48 spots and a massive list of beefsteaks. Are you really doing 1 plant per variety? Won’t that ruin the experiment if a plant fails?

Good afternoon, Evgeniy!
Thank you so much for sharing your experience!!! 👏Yes, sadly, the thermometers in my greenhouse totally max out. I didn’t have any side vents, just tiny ones above the doors. I never closed the doors either, but it barely helped. This fall, we finally cut 4 side vents into each greenhouse (2 on each side). I’m praying this drops the temps! I do have a 55-gal barrel in each one. My polycarbonate is 8mm thick, maybe the thickness is trapping extra heat? I have no idea how that works…My husband did whitewash the inside of the greenhouse last year, but as usual, hindsight is 20/20. We did it AFTER the tomatoes had already fried. And we were scared to make the lime paste too thick. Practice showed we need a much heavier coat. We’ll do it right this year. BEFORE planting. 😂

I’m definitely going to think about the mustard cover crop! Great idea, thanks!

As for Black Krim, I can’t say yet, this will be my first year growing it!

Regarding 1 plant per variety… yeah, it’s risky. In the past, I planted 2 of each. I’ve had off-types (two vines of the same variety sitting next to each other looking completely different), and times when two vines of the exact same plant gave wildly different results. But the variety-addiction took over. 🤦‍♀️ I’ll post those extra 20 varieties I’m squeezing in a bit later!