low tunnels

[sammyqc]

Thanks for the link, ohio! Getting some really good ideas! Now if it would only stop snowing!

[fourseasongrower]

Snow here in Maine tomorrow. Seems like winter isn't going to end this year. Maybe I shouldn't have taken down and composted the Christmas wreath!

[grunt]

A little different than Coleman's, and I think a little more sturdy. Check out what I do here picasaweb.google.com/TVgrunt/Hoophouse . I'm adding a seed starting chamber this year, and will post pics as I shoot them. It's experimental, so you may be watching a well documented disaster - - - or not.
Cheers
Dan

[fourseasongrower]

Here's a picture of one of Eliot's gh's from inside. When I took this I was getting ready to transplant my 6 week old seedlings into the garden. He had baseball sized tomatoes already. This particular gh was being heated over night to keep the temp from dropping too low. At the price of heating oil this winter I'm not sure he started them so early. He has 14,000 sq ft in gh's now. I'm seriously envious.

Eliot's tomatoes.

I'll be watching grunt. Don't think of it as potential disaster - it's a "learning experience." I use that to console myself quite often.

[grunt]

The starting chamber and follow up on temperature control are posted in "Seed Starting Chamber". I think it's gonna work!

[johno]

Just took the plastic off the low tunnel yesterday.

I ended up putting a third hotbed before it was all said and done. The hotbeds worked well, especially doing a new one every few weeks as the older ones cooled off. I think the real workhorse of the system was the water bottles, though. All the seedlings survived some hard frosts, and that's what it's all about. Mine was pretty low tech compared to some of the others on this forum - I watered with a watering can instead of drip system, etc. - but it worked out well. I definitely recommend that others who haven't in the past try low tunnels next year!

Another bonus is that now I can dig up some good compost from those old hotbeds!

[grunt]

About time to BUMP this, and add a minor follow up to my low tunnels and germination chambers. I am adding a foot in height to my "hoop houses"/low tunnels, just by adding a 2' 1x1 to the ends of the piping, and changing the plastic for wider.
These

will be replaced by these

and these

will be replaced by these

(bubble wrap and insulation added after this photo was taken - update to follow)
The smaller germination chamber (uninsulated) gave us 21 F degrees frost protection at night, which went up to 31 F degrees with a blanket thrown over it. The larger chamber, insulated, gives us 30 F degrees with no blanket. The only heat source is 2 100 W bulbs in the base of each box. The larger box is actually two of the smaller ones strapped together, with a new bubble wrapped top on it. We already have lettuce, chard, collards, peppers, eggplant and some experimental beans and corn started in one of the smaller chambers. The beans and corn were only started to see how long they can be held in paper pots before they start to intertwine roots. The answer is two weeks, perhaps a day or two longer. If you look, you can see where one of the beans decided it was easier to come out through the side of the paper pot, than to go up through the potting mix.


The germination chambers are sitting on our back deck with no protection but the roof to keep off rain. The lights are on a timer now, so I don't have to run and turn off the lights when I finally remember it has to be done. If I leave the lights on, even on the cloudiest day, the temperatures will exceed 95 F by noon in either version.
This winter will probably see us trying to supply ourselves with greens on the back deck, using the larger chambers.
Val has already got the first flush of tomato seeds in potting mix and sitting in one of the small chambers, but none up yet (only planted 24 hours ago). But it's a full month earlier than we have ever done before. The fun is beginning.