collards and kale that overwintered
early pea planting, we will put shade cloth over entire tunnel to extend pea harvest
early tomato planting
Q: How do you extend the growing season?
A: We use several techniques mostly involving low tunnels with row covers (agribon ag-19, 83″ width ) and high tunnels with UV stabilized 6mil greenhouse plastic. We used Johnny’s Selected Seed high tunnel design http://www.johnnyseeds.com/Assets/Information/HighTunnelBendermanual.pdf. The pdf has a spreadsheet with the cost breakdown. We put up 2 -12 feet by 35 feet for about $500, but we were able to borrow a the jig for bending the chain link top rail. We splurged on framing out the ends with doors and windows with univents from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. http://www.groworganic.com/automatic-vent-opener.html
If you didn’t want to spend as much you can go with this design from our State Vegetable Specialist, Dan Drost. http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/HG_High_Tunnels_2008-01photos.pdf
Q: During the hottest part of summer, is it a good idea to provide some shade protection for tomatoes and peppers? There’s a video on youtube where a tall trellis/canopy is covered with row cover/frost protection cloth (rather than shade cloth) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxHIFBB-Vh4 What do you think?
A: I have used row covers (agribon ag-19) to keep things more humid in the summer and as bug protection but not like the videos author’s method. It seems like it would work well though. I do put up 30% shade cloth http://www.dewittcompany.com/pdfs/11_shade_cloth.pdf over my cool weather crop high tunnel to extend my pea harvest. I purchase the shade cloth from Steve Regan http://www.steveregan.com/Stores.html, I ask for Henry at the SLC store.
Here is a link to some research USU is doing on using shade cloth on peppers to reduce sunscalding https://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/Horticulture_HighTunnels_2012-01pr.pdf
Q: What are the SLC, UT ordinances for building high tunnels?
A: Here is a link to ordinance updates http://www.slcgov.com/node/1471
simplephat 