More information on hoophouses
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These topics have been covered this year in the regular issues of GFM:
- January 2010 — The most profitable crops to grow in hoophouses.
- February 2010 — How to maintain soil fertility and tilth, plus deal with pests and diseases in hoophouse production.
- March 2010 — The trend to movable houses picks up steam, with new designs and better anchoring systems. Plus, how to keep any hoophouse from flying away.
- April 2010 — Adam Montri in Michigan provides his spring crop schedule, along with income projections. And Deborah Walton in California explains why even growers in mild climates such as hers can benefit from hoophouses.
- May 2010 — Hoophouse modifications for growers in the far north.
- June/July 2010 — Caterpillar tunnels: an inexpensive variation on the hoophouse theme.
- August 2010 — Details on crops to grow for winter harvest.
More Information on Hoophouses
• USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service announced in December 2009 that hoophouses are now eligible for EQIP funding. The cost-share program may pay more than 75% of the cost of one hoophouse for eligible producers. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is following the program closely and has
released new details about how it will be conducted. Read the
original press release from NRCS and contact your local NRCS office for more information about participating.
• Kansas State University's report on spinach seeding dates for winter and spring production, cited in the January 2010 issue.
• The Student Organic Farm at Michigan State University has worked out
seeding and transplanting dates for spring and fall hoophouse crops.
The schedule can be downloaded from Adam Montri's hoophouse blog -- scroll down to the entry entitled "What we're planting" for the PDF download. Cited in the January 2010 issue.
• Cornell University has published Hoophouse Raspberries and Blackberries, a 35-page guide to berry production for Northeast growers, cited in the January 2010 issue.
• The Kerr Center has detailed instructions on how to build a Spanish-style hoophouse, as designed by Tod and Jamie Hanley of Norman, Oklahoma.
• Steve Upson of the Noble Foundation in Oklahoma has numerous publications on his website about hoophouse crops and construction, including several how-to articles for limited-resource farmers. He is currently working on a hoophouse construction guide for various types of hoophouses. It will be available on CD in 2010, so contact him if you want to order a copy when it's finished: [email protected]
• Carol Miles at Washington State University has a grant to investigate degradable mulches in high tunnels. Information from that project will be posted as it becomes available on her hoophouse website.
She also has a publication on how to build a low-cost PVC hoophouse.
• About 600 people nationwide discuss hoophouse matters on the High Tunnels listserv. Click this link to join the conversation.
• Hightunnels.org is a website devoted to high tunnel production in the Midwest.
• Sharon Knewtson's study of soil quality in high tunnels in the Great Plains is reported as Chapters 1 and 2 of her dissertation.
Related Articles
Hoophouse ventilation

Earlier this year, we invited readers to send us photos of do-it-yourself methods of increasing hoophouse ventilation. We were hoping to get ideas that anyone could implement without spending a lot of money. We received many good ideas, some easier to execute than others. Our contest was sponsored by Carts and Tools, a small, farm-based company in Oregon that makes battery-powered tools for small-scale farms. The grand prize was a Tillie, a battery-powered tiller from Carts and Tools, featured in the ad on page 9.
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Spring tasks for two favorite crops: roselilies and lisianthus
As soon as we start driving our routes in the spring our customers ask us when we’ll have roselilies. They’re that popular and have become a signature crop for us. They’re basically a type of oriental lily, but with multiple layers of petals, and without stamens and pistils (i.e. no pollen!).
Best of all, they’re pretty easy to grow. The first two Roselily varieties became available in 2011, and since then more and better varieties have been introduced. The bulbs are available from only a few brokers worldwide; we get ours from Zabo Plant.
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Tunnel soil has different testing and management needs from field soil
High tunnel production systems offer several obvious advantages over open-field production. They also present unique nutrient management challenges. Primary advantages include greater control of nutrients and water, enhanced heat gain, additional growing degree days, and extension of the growing season both earlier and later in the year.
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Protected culture flower planning
Prairie Garden Farm has been growing cut flowers for florists and studio designers since 2010. As we’re on an exposed hillside in west-central Minnesota, we’re dependent on protected culture to grow quality flowers. This article describes our approach – planning, financial, and operational details - that helps us make the most of our structures.
I’d like first to describe our environment and business model briefly, so you can determine how much is congruent with your operation. It’s a good idea to have that understanding whenever seeking (or giving!) advice – there’s a lot of variation in where and how we all operate, so that what works well for one farm could be disastrous for another.
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Fertility tips and foliar testing to maximize high tunnel crops
High tunnels are valuable real estate on a farm, but growing under cover long-term can result in nutrient imbalances and pH changes in the soil that impact yields. Phosphorus, calcium and magnesium build up over time and interfere with other nutrient uptake. High pH irrigation water and fertilizers cause soil pH to rise, limiting micronutrient availability.
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Disease in the winter greenhouse
Last winter, we had an outbreak of downy mildew on stock (Matthiola incana) in our greenhouses. We had a loss of 52 flats, 128-cells double seeded, which was about 13,000 plants. At around $1/stem, that’s a lot of plants and potential money in the trash, and according to our accountant, not something we could write off as a loss. It was heartbreaking, and annoying because it caused a gap in our availability right around Mother’s Day. Even with the loss of 52 flats, stock was still our number 3 crop to florists for 2015. We were projecting it to be number 1, so we knew we had to do something to prevent future loss.
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Planning successions in the hoophouse
I wrote an article for Growing for Market on Succession Planting in May 2006. I also do presentations on the topic and have a slide show on Succession Planting, which you can see on SlideShare.net (search for my name, then click on the presentation you want to view). In this article I will be applying the principles to winter hoophouse crops, in order to provide continuous harvest of important crops, avoid gluts and shortages, and use every inch of that valuable real estate.
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Greenhouse peppers, part 2
In the February issue of GFM I wrote about starting peppers in a greenhouse or hoophouse, In this article, I’ll cover other important aspects of growing in protected culture, including pruning, pest and disease control, and harvest.
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High-yielding greenhouse peppers
In this second of two articles looking at less popular but lucrative greenhouse/hoophouse crops, we will look at the particularities of
growing peppers in protected culture. As I mentioned in last month’s article about growing greenhouse eggplant, if you have grown greenhouse tomatoes, many of the techniques you already know can be applied to this solanaceous crop. There are just a few differing techniques that can help you get the most out of your greenhouse pepper crop.
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A farmer-designed rolling high tunnel
Here in Maine, the short growing season makes some sort of season extension desirable. Unheated high tunnels have proven themselves to be profitable and movable high tunnels have been around long enough for the advantages to be evident. Several companies are putting out well-engineered rolling greenhouses and the farmer now has some choices.
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Greenhouse upgrades save energy

The next time your greenhouse or hoophouse needs a new covering, consider whether it would be smart to spend more for a special greenhouse film, instead of opting for the least expensive option of clear poly.
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Eight tips for winter success
At the cutting edge of the local f

ood movement is the challenge of providing fresh, local food even in the middle ofwinter. Growing in the winter costs more (greenhouses/high tunnels and row covers aren’t cheap), but when best practices are employed, might it still be possible for local growers to compete with out-of-region food producers?
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Watering & fertilizing hoophouse tomatoes
One of the best reasons to grow tomatoes in a hoophouse or greenhouse is to improve fruit quality. There are a lot of ways that fruit quality can be improved just by going under cover. You can keep off rain, which can cause checking or spots. You can keep the foliage dry, wet foliage being one of the necessary conditions for many of the worst tomato diseases (late blight, I’m looking in your direction). But controlling the amount of water the plant gets is an easy way to improve fruit quality.
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Greenhouse tips for hoophouse growers
I’ve visited a lot of heated greenhouses, and I’ve seen some techniques that are not often used in unheated hoop houses, but would benefit soil-grown tomatoes and other vining crops. In this two-part series of articles, we'll talk about four techniques that can be used profitably in an unheated hoophouses.
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