Do you have a market for lots of tomatoes in November and December? We have grown them that late into the year and we usually don't get them sold as they aren't as popular that late in the season.

I would suggest you grow determinates, we grow Fl 91 a heat set variety, and have them planted no later than July 4th. Much later and you will not get anything. A difference of a few days will make a huge difference in the harvest time. Days start getting shorter after June 22nd. I usually plant my last planting in a movable high tunnel on Father's dayish and we harvest from mid October- Early November. We have harvested them all this year and have several hundred pounds in the house.

Kale would need to be transplanted around the first of September and it will be ready by the end of October. Don't try to carry stuff from the spring into the fall and winter. It just doesn't seem to work as well.

Nice hoop building. Is it a Farm Tech?

yes, its a farmtek, we bought it and have disassembled it, and found out from a manufacture sticker on there that it's 4/4/12, so it's not too old. I do have one indoor farmers market the third week of november and one the third week of december, but they're not as good as the outdoor ones for sure, but then again I've never really had much in the line of veggies by that time. I was afraid that if I did kale and planted it early and tried to carry it through summer it would bolt in the heat. Mine outdoors from spring is still cranking now though outside. it would be nice to have it in there in the summer because of bugs, and spraying. We are planning on using regular house type window screen on the sides where the roll ups are because we've done that on our other greenhouses and it has helped a lot with the cabbage butterflies. I think we might find some kind of a large weave screen and put it inside the intake shutters too. just big enough to keep out jap. beetles and squash bugs and cabbage butterflies, but not as small as window screen, if such a thing exists.

Sounds like a good plan. Are you planning on using this tunnel for year around production or just up until December. This coming from a person who grows tomatoes into the fall/winter, cut your number of plants way down. Our first planting is over 300 plants, the last late planting is under 100. I suggest this for two reasons, lower demand and less loss if the fall/winter turns off super cold early (unless you are wiling to heat it on a temporary basis). I would look at planting other cold tolerant crops too.

Thanks for all your tips and assistance. I know I have a lot to learn this upcoming season for sure. I'm just thinking until December on this one. I have enough to heat already. That being said we're contemplating putting a furnace in there just in case because it's not going to be that far from the house to run (another!) natural gas line. We just changed all the other 3 greenhouses to ng from lp and it paid for the installation in savings the first winter. I'd love to be able to run peppers a little later in the season, it's one of the things I'm known for at market, but that would require heat for sure and some number crunching to see if that would be worthwhile financially. I'm really sick of picking cherry tomatoes by the time ours are gone, but I think it would be something I could sell for sure. I think cucumbers and zucchini would be another thing if I could keep them going a while, but I've always sucked at growing cucumbers anyway so maybe that's too much to ask for my first run...lol

IF you want to grow year around, think about a "Cool House" and grow cold hardy greens. You would have to just keep the hoop building above freezing , 35-38 and you could grow lettuce, spinach, kale, chard, collards, etc and have lots of success. You can grow the same things without heat, but it sounds like you would be set up for this fairly easily. Eliott Coleman books have lots of resources.

Congrats on your tunnel purchase. I also have one tunnel that size and my perspective is a bit different than Jr's. I'm still harvesting tomatoes from my tunnels and market tomato sales are greater this time of year; less market competition and many customers who have developed an appetite for good tomatoes.

I would go with indt. varieties b/c that has always been my tunnel approach. Cherry/grape varieties that I planted on April 3(Good Friday) this year are still producing an appreciable quantity for my market sales. Larger red varieties are also still producing but not near as plentiful. Heirloom varieties are great sellers but my harvest is at less than any other recent year for those. I've had continuous tomatoes in my non-movable tunnels since 2001.

One consideration you might want to make while constructing that name brand tunnel is to reinforce it well during your construction. Others who constructed those in PA have had snow load collapses. I would add extra braces and perlins.

Peppers can do well in a high tunnel if you don't shade them with taller crops like tomatoes or vertical treliced cucumbers. We also picked them for our last farmers market last Friday.

Wrong photo, but our cider and tomatoes at Nov.20 market.

Almost all of my tunnel grown peppers were small fruits types this year. I took 2 1/2 bu. of these small sweet ones and separated green from ripe. Late green pepper sales are poorer and I donated over a bu. to local Food Bank. Fortunately I had an order for over a bushel of scotch bonnet peppers and that customer brought friends who bought all of my remaining cider.

A few comments on the netting and tunnel ends. I never used netting and never had Japanese beetles inside. There are a few pests but I just don't think netting is the answer.

I would reframe end walls to include a "Man door" at each end and install wirelock base around opening perimeter so that everything can be closed tightly. Doors can be purchased cheaply as used from a replaced home screen door or made from square metal tubing, welded to make the frame and covered with polycarbonate panels. Rolling up an end to gain access can become a hastle.

talked to my hubby, we are going to def put a walk in screen door in one end, even though it previously didn't have one. Thanks for thinking of that for me...all our other production greenhouses have walk in doors and they are so handy because you're not always pulling wagons, etc through there for the other door. mostly what I'm wanting to stop is cucumber beetles, we've had such a problem with them and I would really like to grow some of those cucumbers and zukes that don't have to be pollenated in there. Mine are always all chewed up and if I spray them I feel like I'm killing my neighbors bees, even though I try to spray when there aren't any out there, just as soon as I spray, they decide that's the day they're going to come out really early/really late! here's a fairly updated picture. Not a totally accurate

picture because we have all the purlins up now and the eave boards, the wiggle wire track is on those boards, but not the baseboards yet. We both got bad colds after New Years and then the bottom fell out of the temps and it snowed and rained. But it will happen. We don't have that far to go, just wiggle wire base over the arches and the baseboards installed, and the end walls.

Sweet Success is my favorite cuke. It's parthenocarpic and ideal for a high tunnel.

Is that structure supposed to shed snow? Do they know how much snow and ice it has held before? I had my high tunnel smashed by a wicked winter storm two years ago, we got eight inches of accumulated sleet and ice. I'm in Southern Illinois.

We have 2 other farmtek greenhouses that are 26x 36 and 26x96 and they've held up well so far for 8 years or so even when we've had snow on them, but 8" of snow and ice is really a lot! Idk if anything would hold up to that real well. I'm a little disappointed with the 28x60 one we just put up from growers solution in cookeville tennessee this winter. It seems really flimsy next to the other ones we have, but it's in a real protected location, and we're heating it, so I hope it will be ok. the diameter of the pipes and just overall it's not so strong.if I hear snow coming I"ll be cranking up the heat in that one for sure...the price was good though. we were replacing a- not as useful as I thought it would be- shade structure in the same location. it seemed like a good idea at the time we bought it, but it seemed that every time we had to move perennials out of the greenhouse in the spring to free up space, it always frosted or froze right after we sat them out there, and there wasn't really anything you could do about it since it didn't have anything but shade cloth on top and no walls.

I'll be sure and try that sweet success cuke. thanks for the tip, I have some seeds I got from park seed a few years ago of a zucchini thats parthenocarpic but I can't remember the name of it right this second. i was going to try that in there too.

Working on closing in another tunnel myself. This framework that I purchased at an auction was a Tension Building. It had colapsed under snow so mine is only 78 ft. long.

Try using props under alternate arches for the winter. It saves having to keep fires going.

Although I don't like the thickness of Sweet Success you probably should go with a parthenocarpic variety if you intend to put up a screen which would exclude pollinators. I never appreciated the greenhouse varieties b/c seed costs are high, germination is poor and production is never compatible to less expensive seeded varieties. A few varieties I suggest you try are Tasty Green, Tasty Jade and Sweeter Yet. All three of those will be longer and narrower than Sweet Success and my customers prefer those even when I tell them that they aren't seedless.

i like the endwall....

I grow Corinto from Johnny's. Sure the seed is expensive but this one gets almost 100% germination and grows cukes like crazy in my hoop house. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-8483-corinto.aspx

Trying raspberries in newest tunnel. So far that is all I have planted. I need the available space to keep almost 2000 potted tomato and pepper plants that were ordered and will be picked up in MidMay. After then I'll likely fill in space with more tomatoes and a row of cucumbers.

Peggy, I meant to ask you if your experience with the clips is same as mine. Although the price has not changed that much over the years the clip quality has gone downhill. Many of the newer clips just break apart when using them.

What a difference a few weeks makes. My latest high tunnel is now just about full. Raspberries are starting to bloom but I still have not set up heat source and so I'll be using portable propane heaters for tonight when 34*F is forecast.

It's going well! I found out that my Florida weave on indet. Tomatoes is a little too short. I picked 320 lbs of tomatoes from 3 rows and 75 lbs of cherry tomatoes this week. So many bell peppers I haven't picked any of the 3 rows I planted outside. I'm picking up another farmers market to hopefully sell some more. Oh and too many jalapeños!

Too crowded in there. So far getting by with it because new garden. Have to rethink spacing for next year!

We screened the sides but I still have to roll up the ends because it gets too hot in there. Contemplating a roof vent! Then maybe I could screen in the ends. I've already lost my cukes to cucumber beetles! But I picked about a million first. Planted parthenocarpic "glass and garden" from grimes seeds

Rather than spacing tomatoes further apart why not use the tunnel frame for support using stringline and sucker tomatoes to one or two stems per plant. You might be amazed by the results.

I'm impressed with your cherry tomato variety. That is the way to market them best.I just use open pulp halfpints rather than clamshells.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been doing this mix for years. I went heavy on the black cherry this year though. I'll look into trellising the tomatoes. It sure sounded like a lot of work to sucker them and all that though. I bet you could get in there to pick them though! Maybe not so much crawling, lol.