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Re: [Market-farming] 'Late' Planting of fall/winter crops
- From: KAKerby AT aol.com
- To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
- Subject: Re: [Market-farming] 'Late' Planting of fall/winter crops
- Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2011 13:16:54 -0400 (EDT)
One thing we've done here is sort of half-way between having floating row
covers, versus walk-in hoophouses. We bend 10' gray PVC over each 4'
wide or 5' wide bed, then use either clips and/or weighted/anchored lines
crosscrossing over the plastic to hold the plastic in place. That gives us
a roughly 3.5' tall mini-hoophouse. We lift sections of the plastic
whenever we want to access something from the side, but leave the rest of the
plastic alone. Our fall/winter/spring storm events usually bring a lot of
wind, and sometimes heavy snow so that plastic has to be pretty well
anchored. But the 10' hoops leave plenty of airspace underneath to keep
the greens frost-free well into winter. And the PVC material is
springy enough that we've had them survive 6" of snowfall as long as the hoops
can't tip over sideways. The sides are steep enough that brushing off the
snow afterwards required minimal effort.
I've been mulling how to build on this idea such that we can use both the
mini-hoops, AND some kind of mulching material in between and over individual
plants, such that we have more cold protection during our worst cold
snaps. I'd love to know if anyone has found a material, manmade or
natural, that we could bury plants in during autumn, keep dry all winter, and
provide easy access in spring. Wood shavings and chopped straw come to
mind. And we'd probably need hints for how to keep rodents from
nesting in it.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
In a message dated 9/9/2011 9:52:06 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
boulderbelt AT embarqmail.com writes:
We put sheets of greenhouse plastic that are no longer good enough to be used on the tunnels over the row covers before it snows/ices and can usually pull the plastic covered row covers off of the crops so we can harvest. Of course, it is best to have as much as possible in tunnels |
-
[Market-farming] 'Late' Planting of fall/winter crops,
Richard Moyer, 09/09/2011
-
Re: [Market-farming] 'Late' Planting of fall/winter crops,
Ann Sherrington, 09/09/2011
- Re: [Market-farming] first frost dates, Road's End Farm, 09/09/2011
- Re: [Market-farming] 'Late' Planting of fall/winter crops, Richard Stewart, 09/09/2011
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
-
Re: [Market-farming] 'Late' Planting of fall/winter crops,
clearviewfarm, 09/09/2011
- Re: [Market-farming] 'Late' Planting of fall/winter crops, Owsley lucy, 09/09/2011
-
Re: [Market-farming] 'Late' Planting of fall/winter crops,
KAKerby, 09/09/2011
- Re: [Market-farming] 'Late' Planting of fall/winter crops, pech, 09/09/2011
-
Re: [Market-farming] 'Late' Planting of fall/winter crops,
Ann Sherrington, 09/09/2011
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