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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Keeping Agribon in Place
  • Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:26:08 -0400

I've been using Re-Pins; cheapest place I found for these last year was Leonard's, though that was a sale price, so this may vary. Here's a couple of places that have them:

http://www.gemplers.com/search/re-pins

http://www.amleo.com/index/item.cgi?cmd=view&Words=rpb

I use two together at each side of each hoop, and pack the soil first (by stomping on it with a foot) if it's loose before pushing the pins in. Fold the cover so the pin's going through two or three thicknesses of the material (except for shadecloth). This has held through some pretty good winds, on rows up to about 300'; though I don't know if any of the winds were quite up to 50 mph. Gusted pretty close a couple of times, though, I think. When using covers without hoops, or using them to hold shadecloth even over hoops, I think it doesn't take as many of them, but am still fine tuning this.

The pins do cost if you need a lot of them; but they're re-usable, I got just about all of them out intact at the end of the season, though most had been pulled in and out multiple times during the season as covers were pulled back for weeding or harvest or weather and replaced, and/or as covers were removed entirely from one crop and the pins were then reused somewhere else.

They're certainly massively easier to handle than weight bags filled with soil, which is what I used to use. I can carry enough for quite a lot of row, easily, in a five gallon pail or a bag tied to my waist.

But make sure you get Re-Pins themselves or similar quality; I had years ago tried some cheaper plastic pin that broke with high frequency when pushed into my soils (significant clay and rock content). And I would trial with caution in very sandy soils; I don't know whether they'd grip well enough in that case. Rainflo, I think it was, had some large multi-pronged pegs that I had trouble getting into the soil here, but which might work better in sand.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale




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