Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: Winter Lettuce

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: robert schuler <sunnfarm AT bellatlantic.net>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Winter Lettuce
  • Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2000 09:43:24 -0400


You can purchase pre cut 76" long lengths of 3/16 steel wire that are
specially made to
support row covers for about 38 cents each, you set them 4-5 feet apart over
a 4ft. bed
providing about 12" high tunnel and cover with 1.25 mill tunnel plastic. BTW
overwintering
vegetables unprotected works here partly because we have well drained sandy
soils that
absorb and slowly release heat and we seldom get temps below 10* above zero...
Sunny Meadow Farm
Bridgeton, NJ.

"Laura G. Weishaupt" wrote:

> We started digging our raised beds early last spring, about third week
> of March. The neighbors probably thought we were nuts. (on any given day
> they're not far from wrong)
>
> We made mini hoop houses for 2 beds. The beds are about 3ft wide and 15-18
> ft long. I cut pieces of 3/4 in PVC about 18" long and angled one end to
> make stakes. Those are placed about 30 inches apart on both sides of the
> bed. The I cut lengths of CPVC about 5-6ft long and slipped them into the
> "stakes" to make hoops. Then the hoops were covered with regular plastic
> sheet. The edges of the plastic were held down with rocks. We have a lot of
> rocks. We planted those beds in the beginning of April in eastern PA. and
> kept digging.
>
> To regulate temperature we opened both ends and rolled the plastic up onto
> the end hoops. We clipped the plastic onto the hoop with flexible tubing.
> We used tubing for a sump pump and cut it into about 6 inch lengths, then
> slit it so it would fit over the plastic and CPVC.
>
> This was all very low tech, low cost, and we didn't know how well it would
> work, or if it would work at all. Well, it worked great. It held up to
> wind, snow, rain, rabbits, ect. The height of the hoops was easily
> adjustable, if one needs to do that. We were harvesting carrots at the
> beginning of June. All the materials are readily available at any hardware
> store. This may work for some of you. We don't know how long into the
> coming months we'll be able to extend our growing. We're about to find out.
>
> Sincerely,
> Laura
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to market-farming as: sunnfarm AT bellatlantic.net
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to $subst('Email.Unsub')
> To subscribe send email to lyris AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
> with message text containing: subscribe market-farming <your name>





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page