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

Drip Irrigation

There are many ways to water your garden: rain, sprinkler, by hand, with a hose, soaker hose, or drip. They each have benefits:

• Rain is the easiest and cheapest,
• sprinklers water everything and gets foliage wet,
• by hand takes along time,
• with a hose means you have to pull a hose all over
• ...and then there were two.

For the past few years, I have been using soaker hoses. They are porous hoses that allow water to seep out through the walls. I really liked them. They are easy to lay out, easy to move, minimizes water wastage and puts the water where the plants need it, in the root zone. I found a really good buy on soaker hoses several years ago and we bought hundreds of feet. Then we kept buying a few more every year. If you have a small garden, I think soaker hoses work great; don't be afraid to use them. Just buy a pressure regulator.

The problem with soaker hoses was, when I first bought them, they were made well and lasted; like most things, though, the quality went down. I kept blowing holes in them and I had to patch. It got to a point that I had more money in patches than I had in the hose itself. So, this year I am throwing out all my hoses and moving to drip tape.

What is Drip Tape?
Drip tape is a flat tape with pre-inserted drippers every 12". The line expands when filled with water. It is ideal to use in vegetable gardens or where total saturation coverage is desired. Drip tape can be installed above or below the ground with emitters facing up.

Drip tape is really easy to install. First, you run a header line. A header line is a black plastic pipe that carries the water to all the rows of drip tape. I am using a 1/2-inch header line. I bought hundreds of feet very cheap. If you are buying new, I would go with 3/4 or even 1 inch.

Here is a picture of the header line with drip tape attached.



Here is the drip tape running by a tomato plant.




How do you attach the drip tape to the header line?
It is a three step process.

1. punch a hole in the header line with a special tool.
2. attach a drip lock coupler to the drip tape.
3. put the barb into the hole you made.

I like to do it when I have the water on. That way you will flush any and all foreign objects out of the drip tape and header line before it clogs the emitters.

There are three ways to close the end. First, buy a coupler and attach it. Second, tie it in a knot. Finally, a triple fold and slid a scrap piece of drip tape over the fold. I opted to go with the third option.

Drip Irrigation