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Growers using hoops, high and low tunnels to extend season Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Agri News staff writer
DECORAH, Iowa -- Four Decorah area local growers recently shared how they are using hoops, high and low tunnels and greenhouses to extend the season on their farming operations.
The tour was sponsored by the Northeast Iowa Food and Farm Coalition.
Five acres of rich bottomland serve as the base of Rock Spring Farm's certified organic vegetable and herb operation and another 15 acres on the ridges provide land for a more extensive rotation of vegetables, cover crops and livestock.
Chris Blanchard and his children run Rock Spring farm, located near the Minnesota border, with two year-round employees and a crew of 10 during the summer.
The operation has four hoop houses and a packing house. Several of their hoop houses are ridge-vent computer controlled, which help prevent "hot spots" in the center of the house. The ridge-vent houses can be moved with a tow truck in about 30 minutes. This allows the farm to grow cover crops to add organic matter and avoid disease problems.
One of the ridge-vent hoops was filled with trellised tomatoes and cucumbers, and another was brimming with lettuce, dill, tomatoes and other early season crops during the recent tour.
Rock Spring Farm sells nearly all its produce through CSA shares and to restaurants and food cooperatives in Rochester, Minn., and the Twin Cities.
"We strive to produce healthy, delicious food that people can build a meal -- and a relationship -- around," Blanchard said.
Erik Sessions, his wife, Sara Peterson, and their children operate Patchwork Green, a hillside and ridgetop farm overlooking the Canoe Creek valley north of Decorah.
After market gardening for several years, Sessions and Peterson purchased their farm in 2001 and quickly developed five acres into annual vegetable production. The garden is surrounded by restored prairie and oak woods. A tall electric deer fence lines the garden's perimeter.
Sessions uses organic methods and has developed a 10-year crop rotation that includes a variety of green cover crops.
"We focus on diversity, and we're always experimenting," Sessions said.
They put up a 100-foot hoop house last year. Being on a windy ridge has presented some challenges. Sessions made some modifications to keep the plastic from blowing off, and he's growing tomatoes in the hoop structure. If the big hoophouse works well for tomatoes, he'll put up a second one so he can rotate crops.
Sessions uses a smaller hoop house as a staging area for plants before they're transplanted in the garden, and this year he's growing carrots and beets in the small greenhouse.
All of Patchwork Green's vegetables are marketed at the Decorah Farmers Market, the Oneota Community Food Coop, several area restaurants, Luther College and through Community Support Agriculture shares.
Chris Askelson started gardening at 21 when he grew a couple of tomatoes. At 26, he is raising vegetables in a hoop building as well as outside and selling produce at area restaurants.
Askelson raises what he likes to eat.
"That's my rule of thumb and I'd say that to anyone who wants to start gardening," he said. "If you sell something, too, that's great."
Askelson said that his 92-by-30 foot hoophouse gives him at least an extra month of growing time in the spring and the fall, and the crops are protected.
This year's crops include romaine lettuce, beets, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, radishes, chives, grape and cherry tomatoes and potatoes. Most of this year's crop was planted March 25.
He's growing carrots and radishes outside and comparing the indoor and outdoor gardens. Askelson uses organic farming methods. |
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