Once upon a time, I used to overwinter brassicas and other seed crops in caterpillar tunnels.
But as the Tourne-Sol seed company got bigger, we had limited time to build tunnels in October and November, so we started growing seed crops in our greenhouses.
Last year we reached the limit of our greenhouse space for seed crops. We decided to go back to caterpillar tunnels and planted some crops to overwinter in the field.
It turns out we didn’t have any more time in November to build caterpillar tunnels.
We made a pretty rushed decision to try mini tunnels instead.
This is what that looked like …
November 5 – We Set Up Some Tunnels
November 12 – Winter Came Early
It got so cold and so snowy so quickly, we thought we’d lost our chance.
December 1 – We Got Another Chance!
Just in time for a snowy winter with a little …
January 11 – Miserable Ice And Slush
February 12 – Everything Is At Peace
I wanted to uncover these tunnels in late March or April …
But then COVID came to town and everyone decided they wanted to garden and we spent all our time filling seed orders.
April 28 – We Finally Uncover!
To Reveal Brassicas In Flower …
And some oregano, thyme, chervil, māche, larkspur …
July 1 – Most Seed Is Harvested But …
Time For Larkspur To Bloom!
Mini Tunnels Were A Sucess!
We’re already planning on repeating mini tunnels for next winter.
Let”s see what else we can get to over winter!
hey dan,
Where do you get the plastic for the hoops (and other equipment) – this seems like a really good idea for us and we’re just trying to find where we can get the equipment. Most of Dubois’ stuff is all perforated right now, would that work?
Jordan
On Mon, Jul 6, 2020 at 8:57 AM Going to Seed with Dan Brisebois wrote:
> goingtoseed posted: ” Once upon a time, I used to overwinter brassicas and > other seed crops in caterpillar tunnels. But as the Tourne-Sol seed company > got bigger, we had limited time to build tunnels in October and November, > so we started growing seed crops in our greenhou” >
Hey Jordan,
We bent the hoops ourselves from EMT pipe.
For overwintering we used a heavy piece of row cover and then used greenhouse plastic.
Dan
Congratulations, you guys are really something. I enjoyed this story. Ivan
Thanks!
Sharing your adventures with us is very generous Dan, and exciting… My neighbors often look over the fence and shyly ask what I am doing.. Tunnels for my peas and beans on the other side carrots and beats thank goodness it’s all for fun because down the center of that same row are asparagus who meanwhile turned to ferns and grew very tall pushing up the row cover
Well that’s all for my adventures.
good luck
Hi Louise,
Sounds like a bountiful garden!
Dan
Hello hello,
did you direct seed those crops in December? or were they tps?
super inspiring! well done and thanks for sharing.
Hey Steph,
These were mostly seeded in mid September and grew in the fall. The larkspur was transplanted. The thyme and oregano were dug out of the garden and placed under the tunnel – though they might overwinter most years uncovered.
I think you’ll find these are great for growing seed!
Dan
Wonderful story. It looks like your mini tunnels perform above expectations. Great post.