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

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  • From: "William H Shoemaker" <wshoemak AT illinois.edu>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] sealing up/ venting high tunnel for wintergrowing
  • Date: Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:55:39 -0500

Along these lines, has anyone ever tried using heavy-duty Velcro to close up
the sides of the side vents during the winter?

Bill
William H. Shoemaker
Sr. Research Specialist, Food Crops
University of Illinois - Crop Sciences
St Charles Horticulture Research Center
535 Randall Road, St Charles, IL, 60174
630-584-7254, FAX-584-4610
wshoemak AT illinois.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Richard
Robinson
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2011 8:29 AM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] sealing up/ venting high tunnel for
wintergrowing

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


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