We have been busy the last few weeks with work in the high tunnels, since we are done planting for a few weeks. This week we started installing a new solar-powered pump station. We will use a solar-powered water pump to pump water from the river into our holding tanks. We ran all of the electrical and water line and will hopefully finish installing the unit this coming week. I will add pictures of the finished product and tell you about how it performs in an upcoming blog.
We have battled crab grass throughout our high tunnels, but we were able to knock it out rather quickly with a small front tine tiller. Unfortunately the same conditions that help our tomato plants grow also help the weeds to grow as well. We have driven our stakes for the tomato plants already and will be ready to tie them is a week or so.
We picked up our tomato and pepper plants for the Grow Breathitt County project. The plants were grown by the local juvenile detention center. They have a greenhouse on site and use it as an opportunity to teach the kids. Those that help in greenhouse can earn all kinds of prizes. It is neat to be able to use locally grown plants and it is a big help. We will keep them in our greenhouse for a few weeks before distributing them to the families involve in the program.
Hi. I hope you will let us know how well the high tunnels hold up. I am over in Letcher County. Everybody is building these things, but I am reluctant to build one, because I figure a bear would go by it sometime and rip a hole in the plastic to get into the food. Also, I am afraid that wind would rip the plastic off, or raccoons 3eat a hole in it. How sustainable are these things? I think I would just rather build a solid wood and glass greenhouse.