Cucumber Low Tunnels

After seeing and learning about another method to raise cucumbers and other Cucurbits, without chemicals at the Great Plains Growers Conference, I thought I would give it a try. I am specifically growing cucumbers in this tunnel. I am trying to exclude squash bugs and more importantly the Cucumber Beetle. The reason for this is they transfer Bacterial Wilt.

Here is how we built this set up.

First we tilled the ground, made raised beds, buried the drip tape for irrigation and then covered the raised beds with plastic/fabric row cover. Then I filled in the middle with some old straw. Then we marked and cut holes every two feet. I was going to go every foot, but I didn't have enough plants to do that.



Then we placed the 6 foot 1/2 inch EMT hoops every 6 feet.



Then we planted.



I would have planted before I put the hoops on, but I didn't want to transplant them then come back after church and supper. The transplants were larger than I wanted.

Then we added the row cover. We buried all the sides. On the north end, we held it down with water filled two liter bottles. This way we can gain access, if we need to.



These rows are 45 feet long and I plan on leaving the cover on until time to harvest. When it is time to harvest, we will remove the row cover. The plants will be big enough to hold off any damage from the beetles.

I am doing another low tunnel next week with a different type of cucumbers.

Cucumber Low Tunnels

New Tomatoes, 2011

Back on February 1st, I wrote down March 20th, "Plant out Tomatoes". Well if you do the math and look at the calendar, it is March 28th. The tomatoes have been planted for 8 days. When most are thinking about planting potatoes or even just tilling, I am busy planting a warm season crop. Growing with high tunnels takes a lot of work and willingness to "Roll the Dice" with Mother Nature.

I put out 1/3 of my tomatoes, about 70 plants on March 20th. Weird thing is, the first night they were planted I didn't even cover them, it was 83 degrees that day and the over night temperature was 63, great weather. Well today it 30 degrees over night and 43 during the day. However, my plants are growing just fine, with out any heat!

The are planted in the ground, covered with two layers of row cover and one layer of plastic. In addition, I have added a 2 liter bottle of water between every two plants. This bottle absorbs heat and then gives it off at night. I also have added a wireless thermometer that I can read from the house, just to keep an eye on the temperature. So far, I have been able to keep the temperature 15-20 degrees above the outside temperature.

This is what it looks like inside the high tunnel and under the low tunnel.

New Tomatoes, 2011

Fall and Winter Garden

To all my RVP customers, I wanted to share where all your produce is coming from this fall and winter. Want to learn more, www.rvp.locallygrown.net My fall and winter garden consists of 3500 square feet of high tunnels and 1000 square feet of low tunnels.

Here is Hoop A
From left to right, Radishes, Beets, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Haikuri Turnips, Some left over broccoli, Lettuce, Napa Cabbage, Joi Choy, Red Choy, Tatsoi, Longevity (a type of tatsoi I guess), and Arugula.



They all still need mini hoops and row cover to cover them, but that is on the to do list.

Hoop C
My most mature crops and most recently planted.
Left to right, Lettuce, Kale, Spinach, Under the cover Green onions, Bok Choy and Napa Cabbage, Freshly Planted Haikuri Turnips and Carrots



Hoop D
This building grew Bell peppers and Cherry Tomatoes this spring and summer. I tore out the cherry tomatoes. Too overgrown and slowing production. The bell peppers are great. They are loaded and I have been picking bunches every week for the Farmers Markets.

Outside rows are bell peppers and under the row covers I have spinach and lettuce. I just transplanted the 250 plus lettuce plugs yesterday and the spinach is coming up or getting its true leaves. I still have grasshoppers in here and they love spinach. They don't mind the lettuce, but they will eat the spinach down.



On to the Movable Buildings. I have two movable buildings and I have crops growing outside and I am going to move the buildings over the crops soon. One probably this week and the other one once I loose the green beans or in about two weeks.

M1

Haikuri Turnips, Beets, Carrots, Carrots, Haikuri Turnips


M2 Has the same crops growing in it as M1.



M1 also has green beans growing inside.


Low Tunnels Broccoli and Cauliflower.
I have over 400 broccoli and cauliflower planted. They will go under row cover soon. I have to get a lot of other stuff done first!





The first low tunnel hoop.



Brussel Sprouts

They go planted too late, but we are going to see what happens.




Last outside planting of Green Beans.

This was a last second Hail Mary Planting. I have rinsed the frost off of them once and I have picked 40 pounds of beans off of the first picking. I am hoping to get 1-2 more pickings!

Fall and Winter Garden

What is a High Tunnel?

A high tunnel is an unheated, plastic covered structure used to grow and protects plants. They are vented naturally and there is no "pumped-in" heat; they allow for passive heat from the sun. On a sunny cool spring day, the temperature can easily climb to over 100 degrees inside when the outside temperature is only 40-50 degrees. Unlike most greenhouses, high tunnels have no floor and the crops inside are grown in the ground.

Why use a high tunnel? When you use a high tunnel you can easily extend your season over a month on each end. You can plant crops sooner and harvest them later in the year. Using other products such as row cover, you can grow cold tolerant vegetables year around.

Last year was our first year to experiment with year-round growing. This idea is tricky, considering how varied and extreme Kansas weather can get. Despite the weather, we successfully grew spinach and  had fresh spinach salad almost every week all winter long.

It is said for every layer of plastic or row cover you put over a crop, it's like moving 500 miles south. While you can't grow warm season crops, like tomatoes, peppers, cucumber or watermelon all winter long, you can grow cool season crops, like leafy greens, cole crops (broccoli is really good), and root vegetables. While during the winter the crops don't grow alot, they are more in a state of living cold storage. Yes, the spinach and lettuce will freeze, but when the sun comes out they will warm up and thaw out.

To learn more about high tunnels check out this link.

I started with 2 high tunnels 3 years ago. They were very small 12 by 18 and 8 by 12. However, even with those small tunnels I saw the benefit and I had to get more. All steel high tunnel kits are expensive and we don't have that kind of money to spend. So, I did the next best thing. I created my own design and started to build my own, at a fraction of the cost.

Today we have 6 high tunnels in production, 4 stationary tunnels and 2 movable ones. The movable tunnels are a new idea and new this year. They are steel-framed, my own design, and my father-in-law helped bend the pipe. The advantage of a movable tunnel is you can use the same structure to cover more than one crop. For example, I currently have the two building protecting broccoli and potatoes. In several weeks, we will be moving the buildings to a new growing area. The buildings will slide down on wooden rails. In this new position, they will protect and cover cucumber and squash. The broccoli and potatoes will live and grow outside. Once those crops are done, I will prepare the soil for a fall planted crop. This crop will be planted outside and when the days start getting cold, and the squash and cucumber season is over, we will move the building back over the new crop and harvest it into the winter. These two 16 feet by 32 feet buildings will cover over 3,000 square feet over the growing season.

Meet the high tunnels:

Old Reliable, this was my first tunnel I build. It is still in use. It is showing its age, but I think we can get another year out of it.



Here are my two tunnels from last year.





Here is my new big tunnel for this year. It is covered and has tomatoes planted inside. I need to take a new picture.


Finally, here are my new Movable tunnels.


As the year goes along, we will be posting new pictures of the tunnels and images of the crops growing inside.

What is a High Tunnel?