Here is how the new hoophouse looks. The sides and main end doors roll up. We will put “people doors” also in the end walls so we don’t have to unfasten and roll up the big doors to get in in the winter.
As soon as we got the plastic on the end walls, I started planting. It is so late (days so short and cold weather coming) that planting these was probably futile, but it makes a good experiment and I just had to do it. The lettuces had been in plug trays waiting for this day. I have several varieties of lettuce that I am trialing for winter growth and hardiness, so I didn’t want to just cut them for salad mix. I figure that at the least I’ll be able to harvest them for salad mix or for teenage lettuce leaves. Most are already too big for salad mix. The red toward the back and the green to their left is salad mix almost ready to harvest. I normally direct seed, but started them in plug trays in anticipation of the new hoophouse. I also will dig up some things from the field that I have seen other growers sell as large braising greens in February and see how they do. I transplanted a few pac choi (far left) from the field in hopes they will grow a little more.
Our other hoophouse has two layers of plastic in the roof with an air space in between. It is usually at least 5 degrees warmer in the winter than outdoors. Since we don’t have electricity to run the inflation fan in the new hoophouse we only have one layer of plastic on it. Tests have shown it can actually get colder inside than outside, though still providing the benefit of protection from wind chill. We will make a framework to suspend row cover (like huge clothes dryer sheets) about 18″ over the soil. This will provide about 4 degrees of warmth until it gets below freezing. Then water condenses on the bottom of the row cover and freezes, reflecting more heat back down and providing more protection. Lettuce is generally not as cold tolerant as spinach and some other greens, so we will see. I am soaking spinach seed as we speak to make it germinate more quickly and plan to plant spinach seeds in both hoophouses tomorrow. That should provide wonderful spinach leaves in March.
Otherwise, we are getting the field cleaned up. We pulled the last of the black plastic mulch that was so valuable for weed control and water conservation this summer. We had left the hardest for last of course. When we planted flowers that will overwinter we planted into small holes. The plants are now bushy and we had to tear/cut the plastic into little strips to get it off the plants. We will be pulling row cover out of storage and stretching it over them to protect from the wind.
We still have celeriac, carrots, beets, cabbage, kohlrabi, leeks, brussels sprouts, etc to bring in. Additionally we will continue to harvest broccoli, kale, chard, and greens as long as they last. The greens in the hoophouse are growing almost too tall so we will harvest those this week and hope the outside ones last in case we need them while the hoophouse ones slowly regrow.
The weather has not been bad for outside work. Sunshine would make it absolutely delightful, but even cloudy we haven’t been shivering. I do remember another November up here similar to this one. I am expecting the weather to turn the beginning of December though, so want to get more things protected, more storage areas sorted, etc before outside becomes hard on the fingers.
Hope your week is going as well as ours is. Blessings.
