hey everyone we're back we're digging deeper and this week i want to talk about caterpillar tunnels
good
caterpillar tunnels in the market gardening community uh for some people they have a bad
rep because obviously you know there's a lot of stories out there of caterpillar tunnels blowing
up or snow loads coming in destroying them but for me i've been farming for like 15 plus
years with these tunnels and they play a really pivotal role because they're a really inexpensive
they're the they're the lowest the cheapest alternative out there to protect four beds
like we're doing here there's really nothing to compare for the price that we pay but the main
main advantage of caterpillar tunnels is that we can move them around up to three times in
our season so we'll have them on spring crops really really early spring crops in the spring
and then once these are established and the temperatures are better then we're planting field
tomatoes and we're planting field peppers we'll move the caterpillar over onto tomatoes peppers
eggplants heat loving crops for the summer which is really good or crops that don't appreciate
having rainfall too much on them so we're creating a controlled environment in the summer and then
in the fall you know we'll plant early september seedlings we'll plant them but when in october in
november and december it gets really cold again we'll move those caterpillar one more time
so for the same structure we can have three zones that are covered at different time
and that's really the key of why these caterpillar tunnels are so useful
now how you go about securing them mounting them dismounting them the whole
know-how behind building caterpillar tunnel is really really what is the difference between
having this strategy being success on the farm or this strategy perhaps being a big a big failure
and so there's keys and there's trick about how to secure them rightly and in this video
i'll be sharing some of these tricks and we'll also be providing you guys with a cheat sheet
about how to really really anchor the plastic uh with the v ropes that we use here at the farm
so you can check it out all the information is below but yeah it's windy today wouldn't be a
great day to put the plastics on but let's just roll around and i'll show you more about them
the number one thing is that when you're mounting the caterpillar tunnel
you want to make sure that it's super tight and super stretch
so the first thing is that you need to do this when it's not a windy day like today
so that you can really really stretch the plastics and tie them correctly to your anchors the second
thing is that whenever you're putting a plastic on you should be three people so that makes a huge
difference because there's going to be two people kind of holding it and then one people sliding it
and and there's really an art to this if you want to do it correctly and again
the reason why we're going through this motion is that caterpillar tunnels here the way we farm
will be moved three times a year so learning how to do this correctly without ripping the plastic
and really securing it afterwards with the ropes you know is a big part of the success
of this strategy another important trick is how to really tie them down at both ends and
you know a lot of people like to secure them with wire locks but wirelock the problem with them is
that if there's a strong wind they'll just ripped and you'll waste your plastic so the goal with the
caterpillar tunnel is that nothing is really fixed uh with boats nuts and boats it's all loose enough
that if there's a really really strong wind or tornado or anything it won't rip but it's tight
enough in the smart ways using ropes and using t-posts so that you can easily install and remove
and it's it's tight enough so that the the tunnel will stay ground so really the devil
is in the detail like in many things but you see here we have two posts and then we'll slip the
the caterpillar between the t-posts the two posts and then we'll tie knots and that's how we secure
them and the t-posts uh they're easy to put up put in and to put them out we also have a really
cool tool that's going to help us putting you know rip them out so that we can move them to another
spot later in the season the other important really aspects of the caterpillars is using
the ropes that are tying it down that are securing it to the ground and through the
years of me dealing with caterpillar tunnels i've tried many different tricks but really the way
we do it here is as i would say the ultimate so you see you have your ropes that are coming here
and there they're in a v going from wide one side to the other and they're secured uh from from the
bottom and so there's there's a force trying to pull it down when we when we tie the ropes
and even when the wind is trying to pull it up you know that's where the ropes play an important part
so learning how to secure this properly is the key here using slip knots is also another really key
trick it's like tying each ropes makes it possible to untie them easily and also to tighten them
every week or every day and by having it really tight that's also how you can open them on a sunny
day so there's no roll-ups on a caterpillar tunnel and again the reason why there's no roll-ups is
caterpillars they need to be cheap that's the whole strategy it's a cheap structure that can be
mounted and dismounted in about two hours and moved to another spot and for me uh that's an
important tool in our toolbox to be able to a have a really inexpensive shelter especially when
you're starting in market gardening you know these are the most inexpensive structures out there
so that's really important but also like i was explaining earlier being able to move
them around and moving them around is the core strategy of why caterpillar tunnels are awesome
you know farming four season you'll have different tools in your toolbox you'll
definitely have those big greenhouses we have them here you'll have some simple standalone houses
uh you'll also have caterpillar that i'm showing today and we're also using row covers so it's it's
a mix and match of all of these strategies that can really help you grow four season uh
in our norton climate but it's again caterpillar tunnels the take home message is that
they work wonders and they can really make you can really make a lot of money with them
but you need to learn how to secure them and install them properly so this is it for this week
i hope everyone liked the episode don't forget to subscribe to the channel it gives us the signal
that you guys are into it and please tell your friends about it if you know any growers out there
that might appreciate the content and the knowledge that i'm trying to pass on please share
that's the goal and don't forget we have a lot of goodies and we have a lot of stuff to share on the
website of the market gardener institute check it out there's a lot of classes out there there's a
lot of stuff for everyone that wants to learn how to be a successful market gardener there's a lot
of opportunities to learn and that's what i'm about i hope everyone's well i hope things are
growing and i hope that your caterpillar tunnels are going to stay put j i'm out
you