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  • 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

The other thing you can do is carefully remove the snow/ice from the covers with your hands working from the middle of the covers outward. This can take up to 1 hour per 50' x 4' bed. But than everything takes a lot longer to do in winter.


On Sep 9, 2011, at 10:17 AM, <clearviewfarm AT bluefrog.com> wrote:

I had baby turnips, broccoli raab and others under row cover into December on raised beds, but the snow and ice hindered me from harvesting.  I tried to pull the cover up, but it ripped.  Anyone have a way to get around that?





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