Joe, I am not sure where you are but I am also in Illinois zone 5. I have only been a farm marketer for a couple of years so I don't fit the person you are asking for advice. But I am going to offer my thoughts any way. 1. Farming has its good times and bad times. I was a hog and grain farmer for several years. I have lived through high prices and falling prices rainy springs and early frost, hog diseases that wiped out months of production, and extremely profitable times. It is part of farming. I also remember the effects of the government trying to use agriculture as a political tool (1980 grain embargo). If you are looking for a sure thing year after year, you are in the wrong business.

People have to eat. the local food movement is strong and getting stronger. I am semi-retired market farmer who is looking to expand. I am optimistic about next year. this was the worst of years for many vegetable crops in this area that I have seen in my lifetime. I have left the farm after looking over pitiful looking plants or pulling out plants that never produced. It has cost us thousands of dollars in lost production. I have a small pity party than start planning out next year and how I can handle the weather better in wet and dry years. I plan out how and where to put certain crops just in case another bad weather year. I feel I have some control with nature by management , but the economy/government can effect the consumer attitude. SO WHAT!!!! I am not going to curb my farm with what might happen.

if I was 10 years younger, I would be in the NRCS office getting funding for a high tunnel. I have a friend who got funding and will be up yet this fall. I know people who are putting up their second or third high tunnel. Don't think of a high tunnel as a 1 year investment. the cover will last at least 4 years and the frame can be recovered. Even if you look at the cost of a high tunnel spread out over 4 years with at least a gain of 6 weeks by being inside at the current farm market prices and the yearly cost is not that great.

I know I have rambled on but I am excited about being a vegetable farm marketer even at my age. Create options for marketing your crop and make your plans based on your management style, not the "what ifs"

Good reply JRSlick. In my area there is a shortage of local tomatoes. but the earliest tomatoes brought a premium price. My mini high tunnel has helped me. and even using low tunnels help. I am planning on using temporary high tunnels next spring to get an early start. a few hundred dollars can add weeks to your season. If I had an acreage, I would have high tunnels.

"The reason I ask is that I'm looking to add a steel h-tunnel and not
sure if I want to spend the money right now. Its is looking like in
late sept-oct we may have a 2008 style crash scenario going on. Im just
wondering if people will still be buying next year, if they are feeling
economically insecure."

Here's an aspect to consider: If there is no "crash scenario", you will be missing out
on an opportunity to build that tunnel now and have fresh fall veggies and
early tomatoes next year.

IF there is a "crash scenario" and you are congratulating yourself for not having spent the money on the tunnel, how fast can you ramp up production in the post-crash scenario? Do you want to be behind the demand curve, and if so, how far behind it?

BTW - I have not seen any predictions of one aside from the perennial "OMG!!! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!" click bait sites and the usual hucksters selling ways to survive the impending Y2K/Obamageddon/peak oil/FEMA camps crap.

my sales were unaffected in 09 or 10. my up or down years usually are due to my decisions as to what to grow and when or weather/pest problems. the payback for tunnels is very fast if you grow the right thing at the right time. this means knowing your market.

thanks for taking time and posting , went ahead a bought it today. 20 x 48 pretty complete minus the plastic. and its only a few miles away from my garden.

A week or 2 early in my "crash" prediction. but not bad eh? tomorrow looks bad for those playing along at home. :} Easy to do after the fact, not so much in real time. Shall I go on ? Its fascinating stuff.

The ups and downs I have seen regard years when customers' gardens do well and no one wants to buy; and years everything grows badly and there are more customers wanting to buy produce ( which I don't have enough of). That described my 2009 and 2010! And it continues. I wanted to do only CSA this year but couldn't sell enough shares and this year is the worst growing year ever and the best market year. Ugh. Growing produce puts us in a little different category when it come to the economy.

The good and bad growing years are, in a way, taken out of the equation if you have a high tunnel(s). Too cold and wet outside, it can be dry and warm in the hoop building. Too dry outside, it is easy to keep things watered in the high tunnel. Late frost, early frost the high tunnel will help you keep everything going.

As I look back at this season, all my best money making crops came out of the high tunnels. I just wish I would have gotten more little cucumbers planted in a tunnel. Oh well, there is always next year.

Jay

Well Jay, You inspired me to build my first pvc tunnel in 2010 and I haven't looked back. Aside from tomatoes and peppers what is the next best cash crop for a tunnel?

Striped cuke beetles were early and thick this year. They ruined my muskmelon crop, I was not prepared for the early onslaught. How do you manage them in the tunnel?

It depends on your market as to what is the most profitable. Of the things that I grow that are very profitable are zucchini and little pickling cucumbers. Both of these are parthenocopic meaning they set fruit without the need of pollination.

We transplant in both crops into my movable buildings. I started picking zucchini about May 8th and little cucumbers around May 20th. We sell the zucchini for $1 a piece and cucumbers for $2.50-3.00 a pound. Since these are in movable buildings, this is actually the second crop under the building, the first was onions. It also won't be the last, as the building is moved over late tomatoes and early fall green and both finish up over winter carrots.

Early and late greens are always good too, but you have to have the market for them.

Cucumber beetles and squash bugs, I spray for them with Bug-b-gone or other products with Bifenthrin. It really works. Also planting early I don't have to spray (usually).

True Jay, but not all crops can fit in one's high tunnel. Pretty much every customer around here grows a small garden with the basic veg. You can get them to buy what they don't grow more easily. Onions, garlic, carrots, broccoli, radishes, watermelon and spaghetti squash seem to be the most sought after crops here.

For what it's worth, if your on the fence of making the investment on a high tunnel, look into low tunnels and row covers. I've grown more crops quicker than anyone else at the market using them, and I only grow to feed my family, and keep my mind occupied as I enjoy the outdoors, grew up on a farm etc etc. After the winter from hell here in New England, I was able to start to pick strawberries the first week of May just by covering them with Agribon over the winter. This was approx. 4 weeks ahead of the local pick your own grower a few miles away. If your the first with anything YOU WIN, that's just simple business.

Combine the row cover with a high tunnel and you have expanded your growing season by at least a month on either end for many things.

As far as what to grow, people cant seem to ever get enough Basil here in RI.

Here are the tunnels I use along with the row cover.

Low Tunnel

Row Cover

Very true Mike. They are a little harder to manage, but well worth the time.