New Facebook Page

Time to consolidate the information on Five Cedars Farm. I've decided to only update our FB page and cut out the blog updates for now.  Please join us on FB and 'like' us so you'll get the latest info. Thanks for your interest.

http://www.facebook.com/FiveCedarsFarm

I'm interested in your reaction to this. It's just too time consuming  to provide duplicate info and I think both venues suffer ;)

High Tunnel Trellises

This posting is at the request of two people that requested more information about my trellising experiment. Therefore, it may not interest all readers ;-)

Overall picture from the north end. The 'ladders' are 8' long by 30" wide and made from 1x2 western cedar (light). There are three 'steps' - 12" from each end and one in the middle. They are attached to the cross wires (#14 gal) with zip ties and attached to each other with wood screws. They are not attached to the end panels. The end panels are made from pt 2x4 with gal pipe across the 30' width for support. The purpose of the structure is to provide a 20' opening for the end panel, access door, and support the 30"x30" solar vent. The center 2x4 support is removable for tractor access. Another gal pipe is inside the 'pocket' of the end panel and aids in rolling up the center access panel.



In the center of the picture is a vertical wire support to the purlin for horizontal wire/ladder support. The horizontal support in the picture runs from the bottom right to the upper left. The horizontal wires are supported by the top purlins on both sides (about 8' in from the sides). The black hoses and sprinkler heads are used to cool the tunnel during excessive heat. It is a loop around the grid with 20 misting/sprinkling heads.

This picture shows the wire attachment at the bow. Each bow is 6' apart. A pre-drilled hole was available so I put a carriage bolt in it and attached a turnbuckle and wire to it. The turnbuckle allows final tension adjustments as the wire stretches.

Here, the grand kids and grandma are planting late tomatoes. The prior tomato plants were removed and the strings were saved for the new tomatoes. Notice that the 'ladders' are centered over the rows.

Finally, here is the finished result with BHN961's trellised to the 'ladders'. Eventually they reached the 9 foot mark (top) and then I let them fall over the center of the rows.

Feb 21, 2012

These are onion plants. Each bunch has about 60 plants. Last week, just before the rain, we planted 30 bunches or about 1800 onion plants.

Here are the raised beds with the onions in them. They will mature around the 1st of June. I need to create one more raised bed to finish planting the last 15 bunches.

These two rows have over wintered collards. They will start producing again in a few weeks.

Last December I created this trellis for the 5 new muscadine plants. They are 18 feet apart and will start producing fruit in 2013. Starting in the 4th year and for the next 20 they should produce 50-75 pounds of fruit each year around September.

This is a picture of our newest product - Tumbling Toms. Each 10" basket contains two special cherry tomato plants that will 'tumble down' rather than grow straight up. They will be ready for sale in April and should have some green tomatoes on them by that time. I started them from seed on December 31, 2011. The tomatoes have a nice balance of sweet and acid taste.

Now that the carrots are out of the tunnel, work begins on getting ready to plant tomatoes in early March. The tunnel holds 190 tomato plants in 4 double rows plus two outside rows for spinach and cucumber.

January 31, 2012

Well, another year is upon us and we are still kicking! It's been a while since I posted any news but will try to do better this year. Here's to a safe and healthy new year.




This year we are trying a new product - Tumbling Tomatoes. They are bred to grow in hanging baskets, cascading down with lots of sweet cherry tomatoes. Here is a picture of the transplants growing in the basement and getting ready for transplanting into baskets in about 3-4 weeks.

I plan to hang the baskets on a new display rack made out of PVC. The idea is roll it in and out of the basement until it is warm enough to handle the outside temps.

I have a few rows of carrots that are over wintering in the tunnel. They are about 6 inches long and growing slowly. I plan to harvest them in March when I plant my tomatoes.

You can just make out the last of the cabbage planted outside the tunnel. Soon they will be history. The collards next to them are hibernating I think. They look good. Maybe we'll have early season collards again this year.

Well, that's it for now.

May 16, 2011

With temps in the 90's last week things are popping up all over. Today it is cold and rainy so I'll post some new pictures.




Our cabbage is looking good and starting to head up.



The Candy Sweet Onions will be ready to pick in a few weeks. They are just starting to break ground and push up the bulb.

The sugar snap peas are Very Slow but coming along. With the recent rains the pole beans have jumped up and are attaching to the wire trellis.

In the foreground are Colossus peas coming up. Next are the sweet potatoes in plastic trying to get adjusted to their new surroundings and finally the bush beans are starting to look pretty good. Last year they were a disaster so maybe this will be their year to shine. At the very top of the picture you can see our summer squash and zucchini starting to shoot up. With some more warm weather they should be ready in 2-3 weeks.

The green onions are at their peak now and I'll be taking some to the Rockmart Farmer's market.

Finally a look inside the High Tunnel.

The spinach is ready for market and I'll be taking them to the Rockmart Farmer's market this Thursday also.

These burpless cucumbers should be ready in three weeks.

The tomatoes are reaching for the stars! Some are over 7 foot tall. I'll be using a ladder next week to adjust the trellising. They were supposed to be ripe by next week but that won't happen. Maybe 2-3 more weeks.

April 20, 2011

We have a break in the weather. There are no cold days forecast for the next two weeks so we are putting in all our spring plants. We anticipate the frosty days are over. Let's hope so.

Over the last two days we planted 150 tomato plants, 100 sweet peppers, and 150 hot peppers. We were in the process of planting the last 100 tomato plants when the rain started.

We also planted summer squash, cucumbers and speckled butter beans. The rattlesnake pole beans are peeking their heads out of the ground. I'm still looking for the green beans to start. This slow rain today will be good for all.

The Candy sweet onions are looking good. They should start bulbing in two weeks and then be ready by June 1.




The High Tunnel tomatoes are all trelissed and blooming. A beautiful sight for me. We should have ripe tomatoes by late May.



The lettuce has grown beyond expectations. I planted it between the tomato plants. It is called double cropping. Pretty neat stuff can be done in these tunnels. I'm learning new things all the time. The spinach and cucumbers are looking good also. Sounds like salads are going to be good around here soon.

Update - March 8, 2011

The tunnel was starting to get hot so I decided to put the shade cloth on. It lowers the temps by about 12 degrees. Tomatoes do best between 60 and 80 degrees so if I keep the sides down it get pretty hot inside. The other day it was 100 inside.



It's a little hard to see them now, but Debbie planted 1800 onion plants in two days into the raised beds. They will produce 'Candy' sweet onions around June 1. We hope this year's crop will be better than last when we lost the first planting due to a cold and rainy spring. This year I'll cover them if it gets into the low 20's.

Tomato Update:

Our new plastic mulch layer did a fine job of creating the raised beds for the tomatoes. Each bed is 30" across and about 8" high. It took getting used to and was a little difficult inside the tunnel but after several attempts the beds were made.

Here comes a delivery from the basement.

The chief planter is taking a short break.

Completion for day one. 104 plants are in.

The tomatoes are in! After 9 weeks of watering, worrying, and pampering, the plants made it into the ground. The first row is covered for the upcoming freeze on Friday am. The material is called Agribon and gives 2 - 4 degrees of protection. The tunnel itself also contributes to heat retention as does the black plastic. Tomorrow we'll cover the rest of the plants. After all the rows are covered I'm going to add 1 more layer to the top of the rows as insurance. Don't want to lose the tomatoes now. Here is a picture of a nice one!

This has been the month for rain! Last weekend we had almost 2 inches of rain and today we had 2.8". Here are a few pictures of our planting areas during the storms.

This is a good example of one advantage of a high tunnel. Even if the temperature co-operated, there is no way anything can be planted until at least a week of dry weather. Inside the tunnel we have full control of the water using drip irrigation.