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  • Amy Ivy is executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension, Clinton County. Office phone numbers: Clinton County 561-7450, Essex County 962-4810, Franklin County 483-7403. Website: http://www.cce.cornell.edu/ecgardening. E-mail questions to askMG@cornell.edu

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  • Judson Reid and Nelson Hoover recently visited a high tunnel at Juniper Hill Farm in Westport to advise Adam Hainer on organic fertility management of his tomato crop.

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September 6, 2010

Tunnel-grown tomatoes are delicious

By AMY IVY, Cornell Cooperative Extension

With our short growing season, home gardeners and market gardeners need to take extra measures to add a few weeks at the beginning and end of summer.

Even in the middle of a nice, warm summer, some crops will thrive with a little protection from the elements.

High tunnels are a relatively new approach that several of our local growers are taking to provide us with high quality produce over a long period of time. The term "high tunnel" has become more loosely defined as growers across the country adapt a variety of structures to meet their needs.

Many people have tasted "greenhouse tomatoes" and have been disappointed. Those are typically hydroponically grown, often quite far from here, in the off season. Tunnel-grown tomatoes are completely different. I mention this because I've heard some customers refuse to buy them, assuming they would be hard, tasteless "greenhouse" ones.

Tunnel-grown tomatoes are delicious! They may be heirloom or hybrid varieties, and many are grown using organic methods. The tunnel cover keeps the leaves and fruit dry so growers have less problem with disease. The plants are grown in the ground and are watered with drip irrigation. Many of our growers are using organic sources of fertilizers, and some use conventional sources.

Originally, high tunnels were designed to be high enough for a farm tractor to drive through to till the soil between crops. But many growers are adapting simple hoop houses to grow their crops in the ground or in raised beds. It works best if the sides can be rolled up to provide plenty of ventilation and keep the temperatures down in summer, but some growers get by with opening up the ends for cross ventilation. There is a lot of creativity in how our growers manage these structures and their crops.

TRAINING PROGRAMS

Thanks to funding from the Northern New York Agriculture Development Program (http://www.nnyagdev.org/), we've been able to hold conferences, field meetings and demonstrations over the past few years to help current and potential growers learn the latest research-based recommendations and practices. The growers have also done a lot of peer-to-peer trainings through our programs as well. Last week, Judson Reid, state specialist with Cornell University, and Nelson Hoover, a grower from Penn Yan, spent a day in our region visiting some of our growers and answering their questions. A lot of factors go into producing a quality crop, including soil management, fertility, trellising and training, variety selection, and crop timing.

Tomatoes aren't the only crop that can be grown in a tunnel. Other summer crops include cucumbers, herbs, cut flowers and raspberries. Tunnels in our region are also being used for late-fall and early spring crops of salad greens, strawberries and fall-bearing raspberries.

We plan to offer more training programs this fall and winter. Anyone interested in learning more about high-tunnel production can contact me at adi2@cornell.edu and visit Cornell's website at http://www.hort.cornell.edu/hightunnel/

Amy Ivy is executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension, Clinton County. Office phone numbers: Clinton County 561-7450, Essex County 962-4810, Franklin County 483-7403. Web site: http://www.cce.cornell.edu/ecgardening. E-mail questions to askMG@cornell.edu

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Cornell Cooperative Extension
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