Upcoming Events
|
Summer Hoophouse Workshop Series Halfway Through Recap
Summer Hoophouse Workshop Series Halfway Through Recap Written By Laura Haselhuhn
We are exactly half-way through the summer hoophouse workshop series and the workshops have gone very well so far! The workshop topics thus far have been about Hoophouse Warm Season Crops and Hoophouse Pricing and Marketing.
In preparation for these workshops Adam and I have made/updated a few resources/hand-outs/worksheets for workshop participants. Over the course of the next few months, I’m going to be posting many of these hand-outs online, so please stay tuned to the blog for new posts with the handouts.
The first handout I’m posting is the updated Warm Season Crops Schedule. This can be a useful tool if you are planning to extend warm season crops into the fall instead of planting cool season crops. This is an updated version of the “General High Tunnel Planting Schedule” with just the warm season crops (the updated cool season crops schedule is coming soon).
On the new version there are “planting windows” instead of tight deadlines for planting. In the past we’ve had many calls asking if it was too late to plant a crop because it was past the suggested planting date on the schedule. With the planting windows we are trying to eliminate the confusion. There is one thing to note with the planting windows: if you are planting on the later end of the window (towards fall), you will probably not be able to fit in a fall crop in time for it to size up for winter. The later end of the window is for summer crops that you try to carry into the cooler months for as long as possible. I’ve heard of some farmers having tomatoes and green beans into November! Whether or not that makes sense for you to do on your own farm depends on what your customer base demands.
Additionally included on the handout is the interval for succession planting, to help with planning for continuous harvest. Use this chart to plan for CSA distribution, sales to restaurants and to even out the harvest over a longer period of time.
Please stay tuned for the updated Cool Season Crops Schedule to give you the complete picture of year round hoophouse production. Remember with effective planning you can fit in 3 or more crops per year in the hoophouse-2 cool season crops and 1 warm season crop.
Thanks and Happy Hoophouse Farming!
Laura Haselhuhn Hoophouse Outreach Assistant Michigan State University |
Recent Posts
|
|
|
Write a comment
Posts: 17
Reply #17 on : Mon May 13, 2013, 09:07:45
Posts: 17
Reply #16 on : Mon May 06, 2013, 08:40:50
Posts: 17
Reply #15 on : Fri May 03, 2013, 10:53:30
Posts: 17
Reply #14 on : Mon April 22, 2013, 20:19:45