Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] sealing up/ venting high tunnel for winter growing

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Richard Robinson <rrobinson AT nasw.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] sealing up/ venting high tunnel for winter growing
  • Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:29:11 -0400

On 9/29/2011 at 9:22:49 AM, Cameron Pedersen wrote:
> 1: I am in zone 6a, south-central Pa. For winter growing, is it necessary to
> seal up the tunnel so it is more or less airtight? (We are growing
> cold-hardy
> greens, mainly spinach, baby lettuce, and various brassica greens). With
> roll-
> ups, it seems like a challenge.

Once the weather is cool enough to not need to roll up anymore, I plan to
remove the pipe
and WW the plastic into channel along the bottom and sides. (we're in zone 5)

> Also, the door is a simple home made affair that
> doesn't seal completely when closed. I could improve both of these
> situations
> with insulation foam, but do I need to? Will that matter for a 2016 sf
> tunnel
> if the temp is getting into the teens or single digits outside? We have a
> single layer of plastic, and will be using row cover inside.

my tunnel is 1400 SF, single layer. Last winter I used row cover at night,
removed it
during the day, over spinach and lettuce. The lettuce lost it in January, but
the spinach
was perfect. A tunnel your size may have less need for being perfectly tight,
but I think
if you know there are obvious gaps, it makes sense to close them up.
>
> 2: On cold, cloudy winter days, do you vent your tunnels for the sake of
> disease prevention?

I vented mine only for heat on sunny days. We had minor problems with the
spinach,
somewhat worse with some of the lettuces, but I hope to solve that more with
varieties
than with more venting.



Richard Robinson
www.nasw.org/users/rrobinson/
Hopestill Farm
www.hopestill.com






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page