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A typical high tunnel is big enough to walk in.
That's why they call them high tunnels not low tunnels.
They are covered with something that lets sunlight in and they're typically used to grow crops.
It's a greenhouse structure that's not heated - actively.
It's passive heating through solar radiation.
A typical structure would, like the one you see behind me, have bows spaced anywhere from 4 -6 feet apart
and then be covered with a film plastic material that lets the sunlight in.
The difference between a hot house and a green house is simply the heating - or the lack thereof.
In a true greenhouse you have active heating whether it be a fuel source like propane or wood.
Typically used to extend the growing season in the spring or the fall and into the winter
so you can get a little longer cropping season.
We decided to put high tunnels on our farm to provide extra income, to diversify our income and
to help keep our son at home on the farm.
Then there are all various types of sizes. They can be different lengths.
They can be made out of different materials and
then they can have different ventilation systems in the end walls.
Some have vents in the roofs, so there are different venting mechanisms.
So my thought is that the crop has to be able to pay its rent.
Its going to be living within a square foot give or take a few square feet and
it its not giving you the output that you need to maintain the operation of that facility
then its a problem.
Switched to bell peppers, tomatoes, herbs, lettuce, eatable flowers.
We've only grown tomatoes and we've experimented with growing cucumbers in hanging baskets
to utilize the total square footage of the high tunnel.
People who've had success seemingly with strawberries and with raspberries,
some of the brambles, they seem to be having success.
In terms of cool season crops, people are growing things like spinach, lettuce, kale,
some of the root crops.
Some of the advantages for high tunnels, again it comes back to market window.
It allows you to plant maybe even up to a month or two months
earlier than you normally would be able to plant in the field.
Again, if you plant a month or two months earlier than you normally would in the field that means
you have tomatoes ready or crops ready, available before anybody else would
when they're growing in the field so prices generally will be high.
Less disease pressure with a high tunnel. More controlled environment.
You extend your growing season by 3 - 6 weeks on either end.
Some people would prefer to spread their work out through the year more and not have to work so much.
Changes in my mind, probably has more to do with lack of experience and understanding
of what the environment is like in those structures.
You have to have a good understanding of what the climate's like,
how you're going to manage those crops.
Generally speaking if you're growing tomatoes and bell peppers and cucumbers
if you want to try to maximize the space, meaning the whole volume of the structure,
in my opinion growing trellising vegetable crops is something of interest.
But there's a lot of labor. There's even more labor than associated with high tunnels
with some crops than there is even with the field setting.
I have farmed all my life, gardened, and bailed hay.
We thought when we got into the produce it would be just like farming and gardening.
But it's a lot more in-depth.
The disadvantages are that managing the environment is important
and it can take time and it can be a daily necessity.
So when it gets hot the temperature inside the tunnel can increase very quickly
to beyond what the plants will tolerate and the soil.
You don't have necessarily have the opportunity to rotate that soil to different crops
as much as you might like for disease prevention because often times people
will want to put the same high value crop in the tunnel because that's the thing they can make money on.
If I were to start over again, I would do more preplanning on the layout.
where each high tunnel would set.
I would explore my markets better.
For fruit and vegetable connection website under the section called season extension
we have some links to resources.
There's a series of videos that were done in 2010 by the Great Lakes Vegetable Working Group.
What I would recommend is seeking out information from a land grant institute from a state.
If you can't find it locally but from a state that is similar to the conditions which
you as the grower will be working in.
Who has, offers programs from time to time in the future so you can keep your eye out for those.
We might be driving down the road, see a high tunnel operation or green house operation,
or produce operation, we stop and ask questions.
Ninety percent, ninety-five percent of the people are more than happy to offer you information.
Supervisor once told me there's no money in growing vegetables, there's only money in selling vegetables.
So unless you have a market already established or some sort of idea
where you want to take your product, I think you need to slow down a bit and focus on that first.
Once the market has been developed or you've at least identified a viable market
then you can start moving forward with the additional processes.
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