0:00Hi guys, Jonathan here with Farmers Friend and I'm at Bountiful Blessings Farm with my dad John and we're going over some questions that have been submitted from our customers and we have

0:09uh a couple of questions from Nancy. She says, "I bought a high tunnel and it got much colder than I thought it would over the winter. Do you have any tips

0:18non-electrical for warming it up during cold nights? I tried straw bales around the outside and passive water barrels on

0:25the inside. This summer, I hope to install sand paths with red tile pavers to help capture heat. Other ideas? What do you think? Non. So, I'm non-electric,

0:36but probably sounds like she's looking for something pretty passive, like not not uh gas or wood or, you know, something

0:45like that. So, you know, I hear from people all the time about all these elaborate things they're doing to to

0:54create thermal mass and and to try to hold heat in there. Um, but the thing I

1:01always ask is what are you trying to grow?

1:05Um, you know, if you're if you're not trying to grow warm weather crops, which

1:12I hope you're not, because I I think that's kind of a a bad idea from my personal experience to grow things

1:20totally out of season. Though, if you're trying to grow cool weather crops, there are some hardy crops which really don't

1:29need all those elaborate things. And so I I think people kind of go further than

1:35they need to. And again, you can't buy a a basic high tunnel and expect to grow tropical, you know, fruits in it or

1:44something. Yeah. I mean, you'd have to have a glass structure with with heat and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. with what what you have figured out, Nancy,

1:53it sounds like is that a high tunnel, if it's a single layer of plastic high

1:59tunnel or hoop house, um once the sun goes down, the inside temperature

2:06is, you know, at best one or two degrees, maybe 3° warmer than outside.

2:14So, it really is not giving you a lot of protection just from that plastic. Um, but again, I I I like to

2:23refer to books. This is the classic on winter growing, Elliot Coleman's Winter Harvest Handbook. Um, he was the pioneer with winter growing. He's up in Maine,

2:36the coast of Maine, but he's he's in zone five, but he's doing growing all through the winter in unheated houses.

2:46And that book tells you, you know, it's all about the crops. You grow things like spinach and kale and there's a lot

2:55of Asian greens, clonia and minotina and you know all these

3:03things can handle some really cold temperatures. Um below freezing temperatures. Oh yeah,

3:10well below freezing. Um, and in fact,

3:14I'll just say the the key to that book and to basic winter growing is to

3:21combine the one layer of plastic on the hoop house with a low layer of row cover

3:30over some kind of wire hoops or something. And that that row cover ideally you pull it off during the

3:38daytime so the sun can be heating the soil, warming the soil through the plastic and then in the late afternoon

3:46you pull the row cover on and that traps that ground heat under there. Yeah. So,

3:52that's a simple explanation, but yeah, I I would question whether you need all those fancy solutions to to grow cool weather crops.

4:05Yeah, if you're trying to grow lemons through the winter, you you're going to need heat. Um and more than barrels of

4:14water, more than any kind of passive thing is going to give you. Yeah. um you know digging into a hillside or something like that you know you that'll

4:22better you know I mean you can use the ground heat if you want to get fancy and spend a lot of

4:29money you can geothermal and stuff like that yeah yeah those work yeah another book just um

4:38JMFier's the winter market gardener has just come out in the last couple years it's another

4:46excellent resour source on winter growing. And he talks more about they've been experimenting with geothermal

4:53running tubes through the soil and stuff. Yeah. So, those are possibilities, but are they needed? You know, we don't know where you live,

5:03Nancy. That would have been helpful. But just to wrap that up, figure out what kind of crops you want to grow and be

5:10realistic about what those crops are going to require. um cool weather crops that can handle freezing temperatures

5:17and and just bounce back. That's generally the way to go if you're just growing in basic high tunnels.

5:22Otherwise, you're going to have to do some sort of significant heat source to be able to uh keep those warm temperatures for warm weather crops. So,

5:30all right, we had one other question um from Nancy. She said, "My my second question has to do with irrigation. I do not have my paths in straight rows, so

5:39I'm having some issues with figuring out water path. My first attempt has been a dismal failure with only the drip area getting damp and water not reaching the plants. Your system is great for rows,

5:50but what if the beds are not in rows? So, yeah, I'm envisioning like a uh a greenhouse with, you know,

5:58wandering paths and and different tropical trees. NY's an artist or a, you know, a creative person rather than a

6:08functional person. Yeah. Form over function. or over function. So yeah,

6:15that it it is definitely a little more complicated than straight rows and beds.

6:21And obviously that's why market gardener, you don't see too much of that wandering rose in market gardening.

6:31Um but hey, you know, if if you're not into it just for the money, you know,

6:37it's beautiful. And yeah, so regular drip um like the the tape drip tape that

6:44we use is harder to to kind of meander around stuff, right? But what about like that traditional kind of soaker hose?

6:53Soaker hose that I mean that should work pretty good. I have really no experience with that, so it's hard to talk to it um

7:02intelligently, but it would seem like that would work fine. You know, what I don't know is what kind of

7:11um you know, how much water it's letting out and if it's even over the whole length of the hose. Yeah. Um but it

7:20sounds like from the question that she did use drip. And I I think, you know,

7:27you could curve drip tape some. It doesn't have to be. I mean, it'll kind of kink a little bit, but as long as

7:34it's not totally kinkedked, you're still going to be getting water through there.

7:39But I think there's also a a misunderstanding about drip here that probably a lot of people don't

7:47understand. She says um the drip area is getting damp and water is not reaching the plants.

7:56So, one thing it's important to understand about drip, you know, drip tape, it's just where where it's

8:03dripping into the soil. You may have a very small area that is actually moist, but as it goes down, it spreads out.

8:12Mhm. And so you don't necessarily have to get the whole surface wet unless you're trying

8:20to to germinate seeds, which is not good to do with drip tape. Um, so I would

8:29encourage you just to experiment and dig down a little bit with your finger and you might find that you're getting

8:36better coverage than you thought just under the surface of the definitely cones out. I mean, the other thing with drip tape is you have different emitter

8:45spacing. So, you know, if you've purchased a drip tape that has, you know, a wide gap between emitters, that could be a problem, too. You may need to get something that's a little closer.

8:54But, you know, if you're trying to do really, you know, snaky paths or or beds, I would say probably look into soaker hose. That's a a hose, you know,

9:04about I'd say, you know, half inch to 3/4 diameter that is just almost uh kind of foamy. Uh, you know, it just kind of

9:13emits water out the whole recycled tires or something. That's I think it's rubber. Yeah, it's it's rubbery, but it

9:21just kind of emits water out of the whole hose. Um, so I don't It's a good question. I don't have any firsthand experience with it as far as what the,

9:29you know, GPH per linear foot and stuff like that. I'd have to look into that.

9:34But that seems like the best option there other than some sort of overhead,

9:39which you know, Farmer's Friend sells overhead kits for in tunnels where it's just a sprinkler, micro sprinkler that

9:46gives you a nice consistent even coverage. Now, that's going to yeah,

9:49that's going to cover your pathways and everything. But depending on what you're trying to grow and if if the plants that you're growing are okay with getting a

9:56lot of water on the foliage, that could be a good option as well. So couple of couple of options there, but definitely

10:05um traditional irrigation methods are more challenging if you have um a lot of contours, meandering pathways,

10:12meandering pathways and and beds. So all right, if you have been watching this and you have a question on on your mind that you would like for us to address in

10:21a future video, feel free to click that link down below and submit a question. Until next time, happy growing.