0:00Hi guys, Jonathan here with Farmer's Friend and we're at Bountiful Blessings Farm again this morning. I'm with my dad John and we're going to be talking a

0:07little bit about bed orientation and maybe touching on tunnel orientation.

0:11It's a question that I think a lot of people have especially maybe at the beginning of your farming endeavor starting out. There's so many there's so

0:18many questions that people have and I think that's one thing that sometimes people people get hung up on is how to lay out orientation north, south, east,

0:28west, you know. So, let's talk about that a little bit. Yeah, I think it's actually something that's overthought too often. Um,

0:37you know, these beds in this greenhouse are oriented pretty much north south and you know, so the so the sun's coming up

0:46over here and over the course of the day the plants are getting the same amount of sunlight, you know, no matter where

0:55they are. There's the thought that orienting your beds east west might

1:02cause some shading. You know, if you have tall crops,

1:07um they could shade everything on the north side of it.

1:12But the reality is most,

1:18you know, the the only time that shading is going to occur is when the sun is is,

1:24you know, I mean, in the winter time when the sun's low,

1:27either just coming up or just coming down or Yeah. So, so the point is most people

1:34aren't trying to grow tall crops in the winter time. So, I think it's, you know,

1:40the angle of the sun, especially if you're way up north in the winter,

1:45you're you're going to be casting some shadows.

1:49But from our experience, it's like I said, I think it's really overthought cuz in the winter when when it could be

1:58an issue, it's usually not an issue cuz you're not growing tall plants. In the summer, you know, the the the sun is pretty much overhead.

2:08So you're not having a lot of shadow.

2:11Yeah. So that that's in the same argument I guess with tunnel orientation. Which way do you orient it?

2:19Yeah. And again I think people spend a lot of energy you know stressing over that decision. Uh when in the reality

2:26you kind of need to make like the lay of the land as probably the highest priority or the or the highest factor in

2:34making that decision. Uh here at Boundful Blessings Farm, there's tunnels kind of facing all directions. We have some east, west, and some north,

2:43south,

2:44and we have never noticed a real issue with it.

2:48Yeah. Yeah. So, I think the the takeaway from this is there are reasons why people make the argument one way or the

2:57other, but don't spend a ton of time stressing about it. just figure out how the the layout of your farm is going to

3:04be best suited for the operation and um it's gonna it's going to be okay. It'll

3:11all be okay. It'll work out. Any other final thoughts? I I think you know I think the general consensus is that if you live further

3:20north, you know, the northern half of the US or northern third of the US, that it's best to run your tunnels east west.

3:30But again, I don't really think it's that big of a deal. If you're on a slope,

3:37I think it's probably best to run your your tunnels with the slope rather than across the slope. But really, it's it's

3:46all about drainage. You just have to think about drainage. Yeah.

3:49And that's a whole another topic, but u Okay. So, it's a consideration, but there's other things like drainage and

3:57just lay of the land that are going to be the highest factors in making the decision of which way you position your beds and

4:04tunnels. So, we hope this little bit of information has been helpful. If you have questions like this, feel free to submit them uh to by responding to this

4:13email. And until next time, happy growing.

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