Hi, I'm Heidi Rader, here in The Alaska Garden
I'm with UAF Cooperative Extension Service and Tanana Chiefs Conference.
I'm here in Homer Alaska checking out all the cool things farmers are doing here
to extend the season like high tunnels, hoop houses, low tunnels and also the
other cool tools they're using as small-scale farmers.
I'm here with Emily Garrity here at Twitter Creek Gardens in Homer and as you can see she's got a
lot of great high tunnels and examples of season extension. So Emily's gonna
show us a little bit around her farm. How long have you been farming for Emily?
What did we decide? Seventeen years total - but 13 on this plot.
That's great. And so you've got a large high tunnel and some movable high tunnels over there and then
some hoop houses. So let's go check out your hoop house.
Sounds good.
So this is your hoop house. So you just built this from pretty simple materials
that looks like PVC pipe. And then what are you use to anchor the PVC pipe?
We use rebar. So our PVC pipe is every four foot and then we have a perimeter of
wood and at the base of the PVC there's rebar that's two feet into the ground
and one foot out and the PVC rolls right over and covers the rebar. And then it's
lashed on to the wood with just plumber's tape and screws.
And how long it is the PVC pipe?
20 foot.
Okay so how big is the hoop house?
This one is 14-foot wide and 40-foot long.
And do you have an estimate of how much it
costs to build something like this?
My best estimate would be 200 to 300 dollars
and the most expensive materials being the greenhouse plastic and the PVC.
Nice. And then you've got some nice end walls here it looks like. That's just a
kind of a simple design to fit the the PVC pipe?
Yup. Exactly.
We keep a lot of scrap wood on hand so we just use scrap wood and piece them
together. And I'm trying to remember the first place I saw this end wall-design,
but it seems to really work with just the pieces meeting together with gussets
and... yeah. And then we use these tee posts to kind of hold them in place and then
once we put the plastic on and latch it all down it holds the whole structure together.
And how do you anchor the plastic to this structure?
On the outside along the base - the wooden base there's little lath strips that we use short
screws and put the lath strip over the plastic and then the screws go through
the lath strip and into the plastic and into the perimeter baseboard.
Okay, and I've seen a couple designs for this. Some people use purlin to brace the
top but you're using some rope?
Yup. We used to use purlins and
I found that when we would drill holes through the purlins and the rafters, if
you want to call them, the PVC rafters - that the strength of the rafters would be
compromised where the hole was. So I decided that a rope would serve the same
purpose but wouldn't - trying to think of the right word - but, break the integrity of the PVC pipe.
Nice. And what do you tend to grow in the in these hoop houses.
So in the spring we'll use them kind of like a hardening tunnel for our starts and then
in the summer all of our warm loving crops grow best in these out of all the
tunnels so we'll put tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, tomatillos, basil, sometimes onions
some herbs. Those type of things.
So you're growing a lot of warm season crops in here.
Yup. Exactly.
And why is that? Is it warmer than some of your other high tunnels?
It is. I think the design - the low structure to the soil keeps all of the heat right down on the plants.
So it seems really effective at those crops that prefer warmer, more humid climates.
Uh-huh. And then you just use the doors to ventilate?
Yup. We have a door on one end and just
a window on the other end and that seems to be enough. I think in a warmer climate
you probably would want roll-up sides. But because Homer stays pretty cool all summer
that amount of ventilation works for those crops.
Okay. Nice. Well, let's go check out your other movable tunnel now.
So this is your movable tunnel. What do you call it?
This is made by Rimol and it's called the Rolling Thunder.
Okay, so what's the advantage of having a movable tunnel?
So for us we get
two separate plots per tunnel with the same tunnel, so we can start an early
spring crop under cover and then when that crop can withstand the
elements outside, we can move it onto a summer crop that will prefer a warming grow - a warmer growing environment.
And then when that crop is done we can move it back on to a fall crop. So we get three successions out of the same structure.
Okay, nice. And it looks like this is the track here.
Why do you have - what are these for here? The wood and the rebar?
So we have ground posts here and that's what anchors the system and we use kind of like a raised
bed system just to keep the soil off of the track to keep it clear from debris
so when we want to move it it's really simple. And then the rebar is just
holding the the raised beds in place.
Okay. Yeah, because you don't want dirt on
the track that would really...
Yeah... it'd probably get caught in our casters and you have to clean the track before moving it.
And we have - our tunnels are on 96 foot of track
but I've seen examples where they've been on multiple... multiple plots, so you
could get five plots out of the same tunnel. Just keep moving it down the line.
So you can have as long of a track as you want but we, because of our space and
our slope and the excavation we had to do we just use two plots.
Okay. So, this is your end wall here. It's a little bit different than other high tunnels.
Can you explain why it is the way it is?
Yeah, this isn't the best example of door design, but the reason it's like this is because we
have a brace that goes at the four-foot level from side to side which helps the integrity of the structure
when it's moving. And that was a recommendation from a farm that I
visited in Maine that had these structures and they said with a break in
the middle of the structure for a door it tended to make the tunnel a little
more difficult to move and it would kind of jiggle as it was being instead of
staying as one solid unit. So it makes access a little bit more of an issue but
it's doable for keeping the integrity of the structure.
And you also can't have the end walls go all the way down either because then you
would knock over your crop as you move it.
Right. So all we have right now is just another flap of poly that goes down and wiggle wires into the sides but
an ideal setup would have a hinged solid door that hinged up when you wanted to
move it or hinged up for ventilation. So that's in the plan. It just hasn't happened yet.
And then you can also ventilate on the sides if you wanted to.
You could. We don't have to, or we haven't had to yet. The end vents seem to
be enough, but I think if you were in a warmer climate or you had a long series
of hot days, then maybe a rollup side would be effective.
Well, let's move it.
Okay. So one thing we have to do before we move it is take the braces off.
We've taken the rest - normally we have four or five braces per side and
that just ensures that the wind's not going to pick the structure up and move
it because it's just set on these casters. So the ground posts go to this
bracing system and we just use a socket wrench on the end of a drill.
And we leave the braces sitting right there.
Okay.
So now we can move it. These are light enough and easy enough to move with just two people, but we have
four people here, so we're going to utilize our human power.
Okay.
So we have two people or one person at any corner. So, take your positions ladies.
And on the count of three. One, two, three!
Wow that was really easy to move.
Yeah. Really easy with four people. You can also just do it with two.
Yeah. Well it sounds like it really is a great tool for certain situations.
Yeah. Really helps with season extension and succession cropping.
Great. Well, let's go see your your other big high tunnel.
Okay.
So this is a gothic high tunnel?
Yup. Gothic Oregon Valley.
Okay. And how big is this high tunnel?
It's 26-foot wide by 96-feet long.
Great. Wow, things are growing beautifully in here. So, how early does it allow you
to plant in this high tunnel?
This tunnel, depending on the spring we're having, we
can plant anywhere from beginning of April to mid-April.
Oh wow. And you use it to grow mostly greens it looks like.
So our first succession is kind of a
variety of things because the first few crops out of here primarily go to our
CSA members so we can start our memberships in early June. So we have a
lot of hearty greens, Asian greens. We have a first succession of spring beets,
some radishes, some salad turnips, and other specialty salad mixes. And then
when they all come out in mid-June we'll replant with another succession crop.
This year we're growing beets and chard in here and then that'll come out and
we'll be able to plant a fall crop of greens. So we use it for succession
planting more than just warm loving summer crops.
And you rotate the crops that you grow in here?
We do. Yup. We try to. Yeah, it's a little bit tricky in
Alaska to rotate through plant families because ninety percent of what we grow
is brassicas. But that's why we're doing the beets and the chard so we can get a
different plant family in here from last year. Or sometimes it's alliums or brassicas.
Wow, it's really warm in here. How do you ventilate on hot days?
So, we have opening doors on either end and then we have roll up sides and I
roll up sides we just go from our pony wall which is about two and a half feet
up to the next brace which is four feet up so our ventilation is only about this
big but it rolls up and that allows enough airflow to keep the air moving.
Great. Well, thanks for showing us your various ways of extending the season in Homer.
Thanks for having me.