High Tunnel Resources for Organic Growers
Healthy Soil, Healthy Gardens: Small Scale Practices for Soil Improvement and Carbon Sequestration High Tunnel at Simple Gifts Farm with simultaneous seedlings and crops production
A NOFA/Mass project funded by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources
High Tunnel Fact Sheets
Danny Botkin of Laughing Dog Farm has a small, permaculture inspired farm in Gill, MA. He uses several techniques for “farming on the fringe” to improve land health, and continually increase the overall resilience on the farm in a time of increasing climate uncertainty.
Derek Christianson of Brix Bounty Farm in Dartmouth, MA shares some of his insights on ensuring high soil fertility and high yields to grow nutrient dense food in his two 30’ by 96’, unheated high tunnels.
A group of Massachusetts farmers share their favorite high tunnel tips for success.
Tangerini Spring Street Farm (TSSF) has been growing in Millis, MA since 1994 and is a diverse vegetable, fruit, and animal farm which seeks to grow healthy, high quality produce in a way that enhances the land and the community around them. They have been overwintering carrots for many years and also have begun to experiment with overwintering onions.
Jeremy Barker-Plotkin at Simple Gifts Farm in Amherst, MA has created a unique heated bench system inside his greenhouse to maximize growing potential while minimizing heat inputs. The heated bench system helps create a micro zone within the greenhouse for year round seed germination, makes it possible to easily grow and supply microgreens and pea shoots to their farm stand in winter, and creates a protected place in the spring to start field transplants. The benches are modular, easy to repair, and have an additional separate plastic cover made out of recycled greenhouse plastic that can be rolled over the entire bench for extra insulation as needed.
Jim Schultz of Red Shirt Farm in Lanesborough, MA built his climate battery greenhouse in the fall of 2017 to save propane costs and trial an elegant solution to a more climate-friendly strategy for winter growing in New England.