Efficient layout, bed preparation and crop selection for high tunnels

According to Clara Coleman of Rimol Greenhouse Systems, adding a high tunnel or greenhouse to your commercial farm or home garden is a considerable investment and in order to quickly maximize your return, the growing space should be efficiently managed both in terms of high tunnel bed layout, bed preparation techniques, and crop selection. The total growing area square footage of a high tunnel is the measurement of the width multiplied by its length and most often, at least 30% of that will be allocated to paths or walkways, so it is especially important to create an efficient bed layout to maximize the use of the interior growing space.

Over the years, I have visited many farms and witnessed various high tunnel layout designs but the most efficient layout follows a standard 30-inch wide bed with 12-inch wide pathways. Imagine you have a 20-foot by 50-foot high tunnel, which equals a maximum of 1000 square feet of interior growing space. For instance, if this high tunnel is laid out longitudinally using 30-inch wide beds with 12-inch paths in between and we leave 2 feet on either end as an entrance walkway area, this configuration leaves us 6 beds at 46 feet long for a total of 690 square feet of actual growing space. With only 690 square feet of actual growing space, it is critically important to select appropriate crops to take advantage of the specific growing season including the season extension benefits of a protected growing space as well as the increased vertical growing space of the high tunnel. Below are some simple steps for bed layout and bed preparation as well as some tips for selecting crops to maximize production.

Click here for some simple steps for high tunnel bed layout, for bed preparation and tips to maximize production in high tunnels at rimolgreenhouses.com