Homemade high tunnel
One
of the first aspects to catch your eye at Abingdon
Organics is half a
dozen high tunnels. Anthony Flaccavento uses these 150 foot long
hoop houses to give his plants a head start in the spring --- his
secret to having May tomatoes without heating a greenhouse.
The first high tunnels
at Abingdon Organics were purchased for thousands of dollars apiece,
but the newest hoop houses are DIY versions. Imagine 4,500 square
feet of protected growing area for just $900.
Anthony and his farm
manager built the DIY high tunnels from locust posts, a steel purline,
PVC pipes, brackets, and a huge sheet of plastic. Clearly, the
hoop houses are still being perfected, and Anthony noted that he lost
two during heavy storms this summer. Still, at a cost of only
about 20 cents per square foot, his high tunnel design is definitely
worth continued experimentation.
Mark's
ears perked right up when Anthony started discussing homemade hoop
houses, but I had to point out the negatives. Like any greenhouse
or other protected area, Anthony's high tunnels become breeding grounds
for molds and spider mites. Mark's rebuttal is that we could
easily build a small, movable unit that was just used to give the
tomatoes a couple of months' head start. Clearly, cheap, DIY high
tunnels are making their way onto the drawing board.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
- Remove comment
- Remove comment