New high tunnel

The last few days I have been working on constructing a new high tunnel. This tunnel is 26x48 and will not be heated. Just a single layer of greenhouse plastic will protect the plants from the weather. I will be using this tunnel to grow heirloom tomatoes. Heirloom tomatoes, while very tasty, have little disease resistance, which makes a high tunnel perfect for them, because they are protected from weather extremes, mainly too much rainfall. The plastic will not be going on until the first week of April.

starting onions

Although it was cloudy and chilly out, today we were starting the first seeds of 2010: onions. About 3700 of them. 2500 Ailsa Craig Exhibition, which is a yellow sweet onion and 1200 Redwing, a red salad onion. The onion plants will be transplanted on muck soil in about 10 weeks. They'll require frequent cultivation and hand weeding, but hopefully by early July we'll have the first sweet onions ready for the share boxes.

Unheated high tunnel with Spinach

Here are some pictures of one of my unheated high tunnels. Spinach is growing in two of the beds, kale in one and arugula in the other one. This is one of the high tunnels where I will be growing tomatoes this Spring.

Spring Update

Here are some pictures of my new greenhouse for raising field transplants. I was originally planning to heat the sand bed in the greenhouse with a hot water radiant system, but after researching the size of the system needed and the cost, I decided to just purchase some electric heat cables for bottom heat and a couple of electric space heaters. I built a tent in the greenhouse from row cover to help prevent heat loss from the sand bed. This is where I will be starting all my transplants for the field this season. Next Monday the first Sweet Onions are going to be started, and towards the very end of February I will be starting the high tunnel tomatoes: a slicing variety and 4 different heirlooms. I am getting very excited - already anticipating those first ripe tomatoes!