tunnel width and bed(s) width(s)

13 years ago

Because I'm a small person (5') I lean toward the smaller structures as being a more manageable build for me. I built a 6 foot wide high tunnel a couple of years back and was pretty happy with the outcome but found it too cramped. Basically 2 foot beds down each side. I'd definitely go at least 8 and divide the space into thirds. At 10' don't the beds get hard to manage or wasted walking space? Coleman's Gothic arch set up with the Bender website is 10'. They do show the lady doing it by herself, but I don't see that it gives you another row of planting over the 8 foot. With the 8 foot regular hoop you don't have to buy the expensive gothic fittings. Seems like it would be hard for one person to do 12 or 16, and impossible to do 20.

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Comments (8)

myfamilysfarm
13 years ago
I like to have beds no more than 3' with an aisle of 3'. But I'm a large woman and like to have enough room to haul a wagon between the rows. My tables are 4' wide and I have to work from both sides to get to center. I have 3 4' tables in a 22 regular hoop, I could get 4, but it would be too tight for me.

I've seen my son set up a 22', but he's been setting up greenhouses for several years. He anchors a pieces of rebar into the ground, places the pvc/tubing over one piece and then bends the tubing/pvc until he can put the other end over the other piece of rebar. Like I said, he's done it alot.
cole_robbie
13 years ago
3' is a good rule of thumb for how far a person can reach. I'm tall, but I still can't reach the far side of my 4' wide tables very well.

I built both of my greenhouses entirely by myself. One is a 14' wide Clearspan kit. The other is 18.5' wide top rail with 4' sidewalls. It helps to have good tools; the new drill and impact driver I bought were handy.
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veggievicki
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the feedback. Seems the Gothic is not an advantage for me since I don't need the head height and I wouldn't be able to reach across. I actually had almost decided to just go with the low tunnels this year since I'm breaking in a new place. But I saw a pretty good study at Univ of Tennessee showing the growth in high tunnels outperforms the low tunnels by quite a bit.
myfamilysfarm
13 years ago
Maybe because the amount of warm air is more in the high tunnel versus low. I've never tried low tunnels, got the hoop before I needed to think about it.
little_minnie
13 years ago
Very similar to the dilemmas I have been having with width. My beds and paths are 3' but the beds spill out into the paths and get to 4' pretty easily and I cannot reach that far to middle very well. Then trying to find the appropriate equipment to make a low tunnel over 2 beds is a pain as I have that other thread going to talk about.
My low tunnels are to be that mentioned: rebar with tubing over, a long piece of emt to hold it all down the center. Dimensions are the problem.
veggievicki
Original Author
13 years ago
Low tunnels, to me, seem to be an awful lot of work for just a few degrees of advantage. I have used them in the past to overwinter stuff like spinach and get a jump start. Seemed to me that mostly it warmed up the soil as opposed to really doing much in terms of protection or speeding growth. I'm sure people who have done this more could speak to this better than I could.
cole_robbie
13 years ago
I think I'd rather have floating row covers than low tunnels. It's easier to cover a larger area. Frost protection is the key, more so than temperature gain.

I'm considering the product I linked to below as a way to get early tomatoes and peppers to market. I like the self-ventilating idea. It's more of a low tunnel than a row cover, but the benefit is temperature gain on a sunny day.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slitted Row Covers
randy41_1
13 years ago
row covers protect plants from the wind and driving rain as well as giving some temperature boost. if row covers are touching the plants you will get frost damage.
supposed to be low teens tonight and single digits tomorrow so we low tunneled the stuff in the high tunnels.