0:00In this video, we're going to be demonstrating the use of low tunnels for crop protection. We've used this a lot over the years in winter growing. And

0:07then in this application, you can see behind us, they're just using it for insect protection right now. But it's a simple and easy way to cover beds and uh

0:17and protect your crops. So, let's do a quick demonstration on some different low tunnel methods.

0:22Yeah. So, I would just say low tunnels are the poor man's high tunnels.

0:32In other words, if the poor man or short man,

0:35the ideal is a high tunnel, something that you can walk and work in. But if

0:43you're not there yet, and of course when we started out, we were not there. And we had we had literally acres of these.

0:52You remember that? Yeah, it does. Yeah.

0:54Um definitely. And so they work. That's the bottom line. They do work. But the other bottom line is that they are work.

1:04Yeah.

1:05You know, the the taking on and off the covers and the sandbags and everything,

1:10it's a lot of work. But if you have more time and energy than you have money, go for it. These are great. So there's

1:18there's a couple options. You can just use the little wire wickets. You can buy these. I think. Do you all sell these?

1:26Yep. We have that design there.

1:29Or you can buy the the metal rod. I don't know what size is that. 316.

1:36316. And you know, Elliot talks in the winter harvest handbook about this kind

1:43of design. Um, but basically, you're covering one bed at a time and just pushing it in and spacing them out, you know.

1:54If you're outside, you may want them a little closer, but inside we go like 5T.

2:04Um, so that's the cheapest option, just covering individual beds.

2:10But then the next option would be um using um EMT, electrical

2:19metal. What What is it? What does EMT stand for? Uh yeah, metal metal tubing. Tubing I think. Yeah.

2:27So these most of them would cover two beds and so it's half the work basically of covering individual beds.

2:39And this is this a half inch EMT is readily available at Lowe's and Home Depot and any local electrical supply.

2:48So it's easy to get more expensive than it used to be. Yeah. That's not cheap.

2:53I don't even know what it is now. It's been a while. But yeah, we used to get it for less than $2. I know that.

3:01I think it may be upwards of six or seven. Yeah.

3:06Yeah. Anyway, it works well. And so then you just you need a a 10 foot wide piece

3:14of row cover or um insect netting or shade cloth, whatever to to cut that

3:22gives you enough to go down and flare it out so you can anchor it down with with sandbags.

3:30Now I will say there's some innovative options coming out now. Um, Never Sync Tools has an option where you can put

3:39little hooks on these and use bunggees to cover. So, so there's still innovation happening with this.

3:47It eliminates the the need for sandbags.

3:50And then the other thing that is a benefit of NeverSync's design is that with the bunggees, you have kind of some

3:58constant pressure on it. So even when you take your sandbags off, it's not entirely loose. cuz I remember having that issues like you would take the

4:05sandbags off and you'd maybe push it up here when you're trying to harvest or do something and then if it like slides all the way over it's really annoying. Um so

4:15I think I can see that I think there are some definite benefits to the method that they have developed.

4:21So we're not the only ones doing cool things.

4:26Jonathan's not above promoting his competitors. So that's a good thing. Just a word or two about the bending.

4:34Obviously, you go to the store and it comes in a straight stick, so you got to bend it. And Johnny's has a number of different benders.

4:44This is the bender that they um promote for the this is a three foot

4:51wide one but and then this is the the kind of the standard

4:59um I guess it's 6 ft wide to cover two beds. But what they don't tell you,

5:07if you read the instruction manual, that this one will create three, four, five,

5:16or 6 foot wide ones. So, here's an example using this bender. And they tell you how to do it in the instructions.

5:27They just don't tell you before you buy the 6' wide one. This is, I think, 4 foot wide using the same bender.

5:38And this is the 6 foot wide version using the three-foot bender.

5:45And so the only downside, I guess, is you have a little bit of a flat top, which I mean, to me, the upside is you have much straighter sidewalls,

5:56more clearance on the side. Whereas, you know, with these, there's not much clearance down here. So, I like this. I

6:03think the only downside would be if you lived where you had a a heavy snow load

6:10and the the snow or ice would just sit on that and I could see that you might have catastrophic failure.

6:20Yeah. If uh but otherwise I think that's a better shape for the if I'd known that

6:28earlier all our hoops would be this shape. Yeah.

6:33But we didn't learn that. You can learn from our ignorance.

6:37So just buy the the three-foot bender from Johnny's and unless you really want to have those 6ft nice radius arches.

6:47Yeah. If you feel a need for the arch,

6:50then obviously you need that. So then it's just a matter of of pushing it in and covering it with your material.

7:01In this case, it's insect netting, but it can e just as easily be row cover um or shade cloth

7:08or shade cloth or uh or greenhouse plastic and row cover. Lots of different options.

7:17And you know, this is usually all the anchoring down we do. Um, if if you live

7:26in high wind areas or if you're if you're going to be, you know, if it if

7:34there's snow coming and you're wanting something that would can withstand the snow, you there are number of different

7:41options. One option is to just put another one this way and like zip tie it together.

7:51So that strengthens the ends. Okay. And then you can really pull it tight. Put a stake in or something.

7:59Another thing I've done is put one at an angle this way. And again, just zip tie

8:05it here. And so that keeps it from pulling in. You know, the longer you go with them,

8:13the more it's going to want to pull in. Gotcha.

8:17So, yeah, just to demonstrate that a little bit, you would Let's just pull this off.

8:24Again,

8:28if you want to brace this end hoop to keep it from kind of collapsing in, you would put a second one.

8:38Yeah. A little more diagonally. And then where they intersect, um,

8:46yeah, just zip tie it. That gives us keep it from pulling in. Okay, cool.

8:54Um, so I mean, at the beginning we said,

8:56uh, these are kind of like your poor man's high tunnel, but you know, there's places for them. You guys use the low

9:03hoops for shade cloth over salenova in the summertime, and it's just a quick,

9:09easy way to to give you the ability to cover. So, that's not necessarily the case. There's places and uses for them

9:16like this with the netting where you don't need a high tunnel. You just need um and also in unheated high tunnels in the

9:24winter time, you need that inner layer of road cover. Yeah.

9:28I don't know how much we've talked about that, but that's probably another video. The two layer system.

9:34Yep. So yeah, they're they're yeah, I don't want you to get a complex

9:40thinking it's only for poor men, but uh it's good for a lot of things. It has its applications um for sure.

9:49One other thing I just say, in the winter,

9:53the first layer is going to be row cover. We use 1 ounce. We've just standardized on that. But then you can

10:02also cover that with a layer of plastic.

10:07And we have experience of getting down below zero, that's Fahrenheit, below zero.

10:17Um, with lettuce under these low tunnels, these quick hoops,

10:24um, and having marketable lettuce from below zero temperatures in these.

10:31Was that inside of a high tunnel? No, no, no. That was in the field.

10:35outside in the field with 1 oz one layer of road cover and a layer of plastic.

10:40Do you have uh do you have data on what the temperature was underneath there? No. Okay.

10:47We were not that sophisticated back then.

10:50Presumably uh quite a bit higher because lettuce wouldn't normally survive down to zero.

10:56Sure. No. And I have been known back in the day to climb under here, you know,

11:05when it's windy and rainy outside. And you can actually harvest from in here down the center aisle.

11:15Yeah. On your hands and knees.

11:18On your hands and knees a little bit. Don't do it if you get claustrophobic.

11:23Cramped for sure. But hey, better than freezing to death outside, maybe.

11:28Yeah, it can be the more comfortable option, actually.

11:34Cool. Um, that kind of covers the gamut on low hoop options and applications.

11:42So, I hope this video has been helpful.

11:44Give you some pointers for utilizing low tunnels in your farm. And if you have questions, uh, put them down below and

11:52maybe we'll respond to them in a future video. But until next time, happy growing.

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