Farming in the Appalachians 1

Week 1

Wednesday August 22 was the first day of farm ops 2. Their were quite a few people that I have not had the chance to meet yet which is cool. Sandy was telling me they have combined farm ops 1 and 2 like they used to do with the second class getting some managing and leading opportunities for our work during the semester. This sounds cool as it will be some applicable knowledge and practice for the real world and our resumes.  we cleaned out the hoop house a bit more and it’s really starting to come together especially after the progress made during the practicum class over the summer. Since we had already had it primarily cleaned out we focused on stripping the rust off the barrels that we use for passive solar heating. They used bristle pads and scrapers while I primarily used the shop vac to suck up the rust that was scraped off. After a few passes I had it mostly wrapped up and Todd gave it a spray with compressed air and then preceded to spray paint the barrels with a coat of primer. After that he gave it a solid coat of black. While I was working on this the others were continuing scraping and cleaning out the remaining junk and then some light weeding. After doing all of this it looks like a completely new place. After all of this we took some measurements of the hoop house and are looking up some new cover options. We need roughly 150 feet and I found a few good options such as the Custom Cut Sun Master® Infrared Anti-Condensate Thermal Greenhouse Film - 56'W from farmtek. This is about 9.70 per ft and may be to expensive for what we are looking for considering it’s about $1450 total. They have other models that do not have anti-condensate infrared which makes them cheaper. I’m interested in finding out if the extra money is worth it?

Would produce grown under this be better than if not? I was also thinking about the polycarbonate and if that would hold up better against higher winds and weathering from the snow?
As part of the first week I did some research on the different types of season extension buildings and their differences. People tend to use all of them sort of synonymously. You have Greenhouses, Hoop houses, and High Tunnels. Hoop Houses are greenhouse-like structures over bare ground that doesn't have the heating and cooling systems that greenhouses do. Similarly Greenhouses are the around the same size and shape but may or maynot be on a finished permanent foundation. They also have supplemental heat, cooling, and ventilation. You can either have passive or active systems which boil down to how much input you want in your system. They are generally double layered with greenhouse film. High tunnels are similar to low tunnels but bigger and higher off the ground. These typical go along rows for spring and fall use. On a smaller scale you can also use floating row covers directly on a row of crops. Their are advantages and disadvantages to using all of them and one must find something that fits your needs and scale.

Jordan Palmer

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