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Like many growers I know, handling row cover is one of my least favorite jobs on the farm. I’ve hand rolled way too many lengths of wet, muddy row cover into crude balls over the years, stored them in heaps through the winter, and then awkwardly rolled them back out in the spring, hoping the mice or rats hadn’t made too many nests in them. That method is a real forearm workout, and not great for my back either. 

 

The bare frame for the cart.

 

Isaac Placke of Tioga Valley Farm near Buffalo, NY, posted a photo on Instagram of a simple row cover winder he built this year that is integrated into his hand cart. The winder was inspired by a drip winder design I wrote an article about back in the November 2009 issue of Growing for Market (a version of that design is also in my new book, Build Your Own Farm Tools, available at the Growing for Market online bookstore). Isaac uses three lengths of galvanized pipe and two elbows to make a simple crank. The long piece of black pipe is about 5’, just a bit longer than the cart he mounts it on, and he drilled a hole through the pipe close to one end to fit a hitch pin through.

 

Full row cover spools stored vertically in the shed.

 

To roll up the row cover he slides a piece of 1” PVC pipe over the galvanized pipe that has a matching hole for the hitch pin. The hitch pin lets the crank rotate the PVC, and it’s also helpful for holding the first bit of row cover until a couple of wraps have created enough friction to keep the row cover from slipping on the PVC. Tioga Valley Farm primarily uses 84” wide row cover, but they also use some wider pieces. 

 

The galvanized pipe crank slides through the short round on the end stop of the cart. A spool made from 1” PVC pipe is connected to the crank axle with a hitch pin on one end.

 

To prepare the cover for winding they make sure it’s completely loose and not held down by any soil or sandbags. Then they fold it to a width that will fit on the length of PVC pipe and will still leave a little pipe exposed on both ends. It’s easiest to have one person guide the row cover while another cranks, but it’s also possible for one person to crank and guide at the same time. 

 

The row cover winder in action. This was an early version with an extra long handle. The long handle increases leverage but ultimately made winding more difficult so they’ve shortened the crank arm to about 6”.

 

According to Isaac they can fit about 1000’ of the 84” wide row cover onto a spool before it become too large and heavy to handle. They have different length beds so every PVC pipe gets labeled with a sharpie, noting the length and type of row cover on the spool. To store the spools the last bit gets tucked under the previous wind and snugged tight so that it doesn’t unroll.

 

Isaac found the cart too unstable with a single wheel between the forks so he mounted two wheels outside the forks to increase stability.

 

This kind of winder could just be mounted on a dedicated stand, or a simple set of sawhorses, but I like that Isaac has incorporated it into a cart very cleanly, and the cart itself has some features worth pointing out. Isaac took a single wheel cart design that I posted a while back, and modified it to fit his choice of materials and needs. 

The cart is made primarily from 1.25” x 0.065”wall square tube, with round tube for the handles. Isaac started with the wheel about 1/3 of the way back behind the front of the bed to support loads better, but he found he was constantly forgetting and loading the front of the cart first which would make the cart tip over so he cut off the forks, moved them further forward and mounted two wheels outside the forks. This makes the loads a little heavier to lift for the user and the turning radius longer, but it keeps the cart from tipping as easily. 

 

A view of a drip winder spool mounted on the crank axle and held in place with a hitch pin.

 

Isaac also added front and back stops for the bed to keep loads from bouncing off the front. The stops create a support for an upper platform that can be used for moving larger quantities of plant starts. He also added two small pieces of round pipe to receive the crank for the row cover winder. 

 

The drip winder spool on the cart. Spare PVC centers for the spool are stored on the handles of the cart.

 

The row cover winder is also Isaac’s drip winder, but he uses a slightly different spool. The spool is a modified version of the spool I wrote about in the November 2009 issue, with a short pipe stud added that sticks out the side and lets him use the same hitch pin to secure it to the crank. With the extra length of the crank axle, he can fit multiple winder spools at the same time. This allows multiple pieces of tape to be wound at the same time, or the cart to roll from one length field to another without having to put a new spool on for the second length of drip.

Isaac did point out a few parts of his system that could use improvement. Because the cart is narrow and tall it’s a bit tippy so when rolling the row cover back out, solo, he weights it down with cinder blocks. Things might improve a bit if the upper deck of the cart were a little lower, lowering the center of gravity, and if the two wheels were more widely spaced.

 

An upper deck sits on the end stops to make space for carrying more transplants to the field. Holes in the deck corresponding to where the round pipe pieces for the winder are keeps the upper deck from sliding around.

 

I like that he mounted the winder so that it rolls up from the side of the cart. I’ve seen some folks mount their winders so they roll up from the front, which is a little more stable, but it doesn’t allow you to move from bed to bed as easily. The plans for the winder in my book show it on a simple stand with no wheels. For heavy use having the winder on a cart makes it much easier to move from bed to bed and to get the whole thing back to the barn when the spool is full.

As long as I’m on the topic of handling row cover, I’ll mention two other approaches. On my own farm we thankfully only have one bed length these days, and it’s short enough (75’) that I’ve adopted a method I first saw used for row cover at the Hawthorne Valley Waldorf School, but was familiar to me from my rock climbing days, daisy chaining. This method is also frequently used for managing long extension cords. Daisy chaining leaves you with a much shorter, and more manageable piece to move around and store. It’s also easy to pull back out, just tug on the loose end at it comes back apart, stitch by stitch. 

Another method I’ve heard of but not tried myself is simply stuffing the row cover into a trash can starting with one end and stacking it as it goes. This allows it to pull back out easily. I haven’t used this method so I’m not sure what happens when the row cover is wet, but if I can ever remember to buy an extra trash can it does seem like a good way to go, especially if the can has a lid to keep rodents out.

If you have a method for storing row cover that you love, or any other tool you love around the farm, please tag a photo of it on Instagram or Facebook using the hashtag #toolsforgrowingformarket so we can all see it. 

 

Josh Volk farms in Portland, Oregon, and does consulting and education under the name Slow Hand Farm. He is the author of the book Build Your Own Farm Tools and Compact Farms: 15 Proven Plans for Market Farms on 5 Acres or Less, available from Growing for Market. He can be found at SlowHandFarm.com.