September 18, 2021 - Equinox
Libby Reed
Tomato and eggplant plants in one of our high tunnels this season
The progression of the seasons is a constant in our lives. And so it goes that the autumnal equinox is this coming Wednesday, September 22nd. It is the official beginning of Fall and the time when I begin to think a little more about nighttime temperatures. We use high tunnels on the farm which are narrower and not nearly as tall as a traditional greenhouse. They work well on our farm as they can be moved as needed and take up a smaller footprint. It is more challenging to moderate temperatures and humidity in them as they lack the large volume of overhead airspace that traditionally sized greenhouses have. We were looking for a way to add some ventilation options to these tunnels aside from lifting the plastic on the sides or raising the end walls. It’s hard to open just a small part of an end wall so we added these vents. You can see them in the picture above.
We think these vents will be especially effective in the shoulder seasons, when temperatures can vary widely over the course of a single day. These are too small to be the primary driver of ventilation but we are hoping they flatten out the fluctuations slightly. In the summer these tunnels have no end walls as seen in the photo above but as we move into fall the ends will be covered. These tunnels will help us extend late fall crops and start early ones. We can seed spring snap peas and carrots, green onions and spring greens and assure growing conditions that are a bit more favorable for them. These changes will hopefully allow us to provide more spring vegetables to you earlier than ever before!
Pictured here in one of our newest fields are cold hardy chicories. They manage well in fall and winter and develop deeper colors and flavors with these low temperatures.