Learn how row covers and other products can help you lengthen the growing season in your vegetable garden and increase your yields.

Video Transcription

Growing Wisdom with David Epstein Dave Epstein: Hi! I’m Dave Epstein here at Johnny’s Selected Seeds. This is your farm in Albion, Maine. I’m with Susie Anderson and we’re talking about really for anyone that wants to garden longer, extending the season. You’re finding all these season extenders to give people more time and that’s pretty amazing. Susie Anderson: Yeah, Dave. We’re standing here on a high tunnel or also called a poly tunnel or called hoop house. And this is a great way to extend your season on in either side, the spring or the fall and bring food and flowers to the table earlier or later. Dave Epstein: And that’s really wonderful for a homeowner. They get to eat fresh vegetables earlier and later in the season and for somebody that’s doing this for their livelihood, they can make more money. Susie Anderson: Absolutely. It’s the best invention in gardening since the tiller. Dave Epstein: Susie, what are some of the things that folks would be able to put in this particular house? Susie Anderson: Beginning in the early season, they can grow greens that are very cold tolerant and they can move into the fruiting crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and melons. And then finish off the season with more cool seasoned crops. Dave Epstein: How much additional crops, things like flowers and vegetables could you get out of on one of these things? Susie Anderson: You can double and triple your yields. You can actually protect your crops from frost and insect damage and increase your yield and quality in a house like this. Dave Epstein: This has some electricity, some fans. Is that a necessity with these types of solutions? Susie Anderson: It’s not actually you can go low tech with no electricity, no fans and you could just have one layer of plastic and that will give you lots of frost free protection. We’re here at the low tunnel or row covers. And actually Dave, you can put these inside the low-tech high tunnel and add even more protection to your crops in early season and late season. Some people even use these row covers inside their high tunnels all winter long and get spinach and things like that. It can actually give you protection to two to three zones warmer than what you normally expect in your region. Dave, these are the Hotkaps and these also add more season extension. We just take the Hotkap and place it over the seedling, put some soil over them and pull the cap right off. Dave Epstein: Oh wow! You have to put that slit in there, you cut that. Susie Anderson: Yup! Dave Epstein: And Susie, the plant will actually grow right through this? Susie Anderson: Yup! You do want to peel it back as the weather warms up. Dave Epstein: So Susie, what is this we’re doing? Susie Anderson: We are filling up a product called Wall-O-Water. You can put your plants out over a month ahead of time with this Wall-O-Water and it adds insulation and frost protection. Dave Epstein: Alright, so Susie, tell me all about the things we talked about today. Susie Anderson: Today, we talked about the higher tech hoop house with the electricity, a more low-tech version without electricity, the row cover, the Hotkaps, and the Wall-O-Water. Dave Epstein: Lot of information, lot of great stuff to extend the season. Thank you and thank you for being here at Growing Wisdom.