Promising Horticultural Crops for Production in High Tunnels in the Mid-Atlantic Area of the United States M.D. Orzolek, W.J. Lamont and L. White Department of Horticulture Pennsylvania State University 203 Tyson Bldg., University Park, PA 16802-4200 USA Keywords: plastic mulch, drip irrigation, environmental modification, vegetables, small fruits Abstract At The Pennsylvania State University High Tunnel Research and Education Facility located at the Horticulture Research Farm, Rock Springs, PA, there are twenty-eight (5.2 x 11.0 m) research high tunnel units. The Penn State high tunnels were designed so that the endwalls can be raised up to facilitate easy access into the tunnel for a small tractor, rototiller and other machinery. Since the inception of the high tunnel facility in the Fall of 1999, there have been many horticultural crops grown in the high tunnels including; many vegetables, small fruits, cut flowers, herbs, and tree fruits. Generally there are at least two crops and sometime three crops grown in each high tunnel per year depending on time to maturity of the crop and the crops optimum growing temperatures. Of these crops, the most promising in terms of economics were tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum), bell pepper (Capsicum annuum), garlic (Allium sativum), sweet Spanish onion (Allium cepa), red raspberry (Rubus idaeas), blackberries (Rubus allegheniensis) and cut flowers. Most insect problems in the high tunnel have been controlled with the release of biological organisms. There tend to be very few annual weeds in the tunnels, but it is important to control perennial weeds prior to establishing a crop in the high tunnels. The only serious disease problem that has been encountered in high tunnel crop production has been powdery mildew. Use of powdery mildew resistant varieties helps to control this disease in high tunnels. INTRODUCTION Plastics today are used in agriculture throughout the world for greenhouse coverings, mulches, row covers, cold frames, containers, irrigation components, etc. (Lamont, 1996). The most intensive crop production systems are those in greenhouses or other protective structures, and the most widely used protective structures world-wide are now predominately plastic. No other material has contributed more to increasing the productivity of agriculture than plastic. A variety of compositions of plastic films, types and structural designs help mitigate climate and weather while providing intensified expansion vertically and horizontally. Plastic technology is especially appealing in China, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Israel, Spain and Egypt where population densities are high, land and water resources are constrained and climates are most favorable for plasticulture. Currently, high tunnels are used extensively in Europe, Asia and Israel. Hundreds of hectares support high tunnels in Mediterranean regions. Although high tunnel use in the United States is not as prevalent as in other parts of the world, interest is growing rapidly (Wells, 1996). High tunnel-like structures, commonly referred to as hoop houses, have been used extensively thus far in the ornamental plant nursery industry as over-wintering structures that aid in the protection of container grown plants from below freezing temperatures. Some of the more recent and innovative examples of high tunnel use in the US outside of small fruit, tree fruit, vegetable, cut flower and herb production include: a) housing for bio-filtration systems to treat hog waste, 2) adaptive propagation units for seed production and 3) as season extending units for the growth and early development of Proc. XXVI IHC – Protected Cultivation 2002 Ed. A.P. Papadopoulos Acta Hort. 633, ISHS 2004 Publication supported by Can. Int. Dev. Agency (CIDA)

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woody plant nursery stock. As the uses for high tunnels continue to expand, their popularity and additional features will undoubtedly continue to grow. What are High Tunnels? High tunnels, although resembling a traditional plastic covered greenhouse, are a completely different technology. With no electrical service or automated ventilation or heating system, they are considered to be non-permanent (removable) structures and are covered by a single layer of 6-mil thick plastic compared to two layers used in a traditional plastic covered greenhouse. High tunnels do have water service for irrigation of the crop and ventilation of the high tunnel is accomplished by manually rolling up the plastic sides, since the tunnels are placed perpendicular to the prevailing winds. The Penn State High Tunnel Research and Education Facility located at Rock Springs, PA consists of twenty-eight (5.2 m wide x 11.0 m long) high tunnel research units, three commercial size units (5.2 m wide by 29.3 m long), a (6.4 m wide by 11.0 m long) unit and a (9.1 m wide by 11.0 m long) unit (Lamont et al., 2002). On-going research at the facility is oriented towards developing cropping rotations and sequencing of vegetables, small fruits, tree fruits and cut flowers, as well as generating production recommendations for the growers of Pennsylvania. A drip irrigation system is used in all of the tunnels so that each high tunnel has its own water supply to maintain moisture control for individual crop production studies. All the tunnels have a fertilizer injection unit, screen filter and pressure regulator unit to allow precise injection of fertilizer into the irrigation system. About one half of the high tunnels have also been equipped with overhead sprinkler irrigation. This provides cropping options not possible with drip irrigation alone, and also allows for leaching of salts that made accumulate in the soil. A weather station has been installed on site adjacent to the high tunnels. The weather instruments installed at this site are used to monitor outside environmental conditions such as air and soil temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, total solar radiation, rainfall, and pan evaporation. This data is then used to compare high tunnel and outside environmental conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS In 2000, eight tomato varieties were evaluated at the High Tunnel Research and Education Facility located at the Horticulture Research Farm located at the Russell E. Larson Research Center, Rock Springs, PA, utilizing four high tunnels. The tomatoes were planted in high tunnels that had tomatoes the previous year, so the 6 mil thick, black plastic sheet and the drip irrigation tape were already in place. Tomato seedlings of the varieties Ultra Sweet, Mountain Spring, Mountain Fresh, Royal Mountie, Sunbeam, Seedway 10250, Daybreak, and NC Grape were transplanted in each tunnel on May 4, 2000. There were four rows of tomatoes per high tunnel with 20 plants per row (2 varieties per row); 80 plants per house. The plants were spaced 45.7 cm between plants in the row, 1.1 m between rows for a total area planted per tunnel ~0.002 ha. Plants were pruned and staked using the Florida stake and weave system. Fertilizer was injected using an 11 GPM Dosatron injector at a rate of 16.8 kg/ha of 20-20-20 on May 15, 2000 and June 19, 2000. The tomato plants were drip irrigated approximately a total of 33 hours through the season. Throughout the growing season the tomato plants were generally disease free, although powdery mildew did appear and ratings for resistance to this disease by each variety were made on three different dates. A small outbreak of greenhouse whitefly and green peach aphid was quickly controlled following multiple releases of two parasitic wasps, Aphidus colemani (aphid control) and Encarsia formosa (whitefly control). Tomatoes were harvested and fruits were sized into five categories: US No. 1, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and culls. Weight and numbers of fruits in each size category were recorded. Defective fruits as judged by USDA industry standards were removed and the type of defect noted. A sample of at least five fruit from each treatment was selected and evaluated for external and internal fruit characteristics. 454

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION During the 2000 growing season, all tomato varieties grew well and achieved relatively good yields (Tables 1 and 2). All tomato varieties were tied three times except for NC Grape and Ultra Sweet, which were tied four times (5/19, 5/30, 6/13, 6/23). The plants were pruned at two different times. The NC Grape variety was topped/trimmed mid July to help manage the vigorous growth. Early and mid season, the tomato varieties were virtually free of insect pests and/or disease. However late in the season there was an outbreak of powdery mildew, followed by an infestation of white fly. In each tunnel it was observed that the mildew started in the middle rows and then quickly spread to the outer rows (Table 3). Lack of sufficient air movement throughout the house may have contributed to the rapid spread of the mildew. Two applications of Bravo (chlorothalonil) at 2.24 kg/ha were applied to help manage the mildew, however the profuse foliage made it difficult to spray and attain good coverage. Consequently, mildew control was minimal. Attempts were made to promote as much air movement through the tunnel by rolling the sides up as much as possible. Overall NC Grape and Seedway 10250 seemed to have a fair amount of tolerance to powdery mildew. Ultra Sweet and Daybreak appeared to be the most susceptible tomato varieties (See Table 3). Encarisa formosa (bio-control) and insecticidal soap were used to help control whitefly infestations. Since 2000, all subsequent tomato production in high tunnels has been conducted on 45.7 cm wide and 10.2 cm high raised plastic covered beds with the drip irrigation tape buried 7.6 cm beneath the soil surface. The change in growing techniques occurred because of severe mice and soil compaction problems when growing tomatoes on the solid 6-mil black polyethylene covering the entire soil surface in the high tunnel. In addition, multiple crops can be grown on different mulch covered raised beds within the same high tunnel. Using the raised beds with plastic also gave us the opportunity to more efficiently add and incorporate organic matter when creating new raised beds with plastic mulch. Since the soil in between the raised- plastic covered beds does not receive moisture, there are very few annual weeds that grow in the high tunnel. Perennial weeds can be a problem; authors suggest that perennial weeds be eliminated prior to construction of the high tunnel to minimize future problems. NC Grape was the first tomato variety to flower and fruit followed by the varieties Daybreak and Ultra Sweet, respectively. NC Grape flowers had to be pinched off twice, to allow for crop maturation prior to fruit production. Harvest of the crop commenced on August 20, 2000 and continued for a total of 15 harvests, most harvests occurring twice a week. The last harvest was made on October 10, 2000. However most of the varieties continued to flower and still had fruit on them until the first hard frost occurred (October 29, 2000). Overall, Mountain Fresh had the highest marketable yield (weight) while Sunbeam had the lowest marketable yield. Ultra Sweet produced the highest number of marketable fruit, however, their quality was poor since most of the fruit were small - US #3 and #4 grade (Table 2). Ultra sweet had a significantly high cull rate compared to all other varieties. Most of the cull fruit resulted from being misshapen, cat facing, sun scalding, and blotchy ripening. We also observed other defects including zippering, soft rot, blossom-end rot (BER), cracking as well as both mouse and bird damage. The high tunnel tomato production budget in Table 4 illustrates the efficiency of growing tomatoes in high tunnels and the relatively inexpensive production costs $0.16/kg of fruit. Since harvesting tomatoes can begin earlier and last longer than field production of fresh market tomatoes, retail and or wholesale prices received for tomatoes produced in high tunnels should be 25 to 50% greater than field produced tomatoes. Literature Cited Bachmann, J. and Earles, R. 2000. Season Extension Techniques for Market Gardeners. USDA Horticulture Technical Notes - Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas. p.24. Ilic, P. 1989. Plastic Tunnels for Early Vegetable Production: Are They For You? Cooperative Extension Service, University of California Family Farm Series. p.11-14. 455

Lamont, W.J. 1996. What are the components of a plasticulture vegetable system? Hort. Technol. 6(3):150-154. Lamont, W.J., McGann, M.R., Orzolek, M.D., Mbugua, N., Dye, B. and Reese, D. 2002. Design and Construction of the Penn State High Tunnel. Hort. Technol. 12(3):447453. Wells, O.S. and Loy, B. 1993. Rowcover and High Tunnel Enhance Crop Production in the Northeastern United States. Hort. Technol. 3(1):92-95. Wells, O.S. 1996. Rowcover and High Tunnel Growing Systems in the United States. Hort. Technol. 6(3):172-176

Tables Table 1. Marketable fruit yield of eight tomato cultivars grown in 5.2 x 11 m2 high tunnels at the Penn State High Tunnel Research and Education Facility, Russell E. Larson Research Center, Rock Springs, PA – 2000.

Ultra Sweet Mt. Spring Mt. Fresh Royal Mountie Sunbeam Seedway 10250 Daybreak LSD (0.05) NC Grape*

Total Yield No. # Wt. (kg) 2239 394 1578 383 1921 408 1432 364 1301 337 1566 367 1670 378 412 28 216

Marketable Yield No. # Wt. (kg) 1886 319 1419 351 1783 388 1303 335 1183 310 1398 334 1562 356 229 32 216

Cull Yield No. # Wt. (kg) 353 75 159 31 138 19 129 29 118 27 168 33 108 23

* NC Grape data not subjected to statistical analysis.

Table 2. Marketable grade of eight tomato varieties evaluated at the Penn State High Tunnel Research and Education Facility, Russell E. Larson Research Center, Rock Springs, PA – 2000. Variety Ultra Sweet Mt. Spring Mt. Fresh Royal Mountie Sunbeam Seedway 10250 Daybreak

456

US# 1 20 49 45 46 59 47 46

Percent Grade of Fruit US# 2 US# 3 16 24 21 13 23 17 24 14 18 10 21 14 18 20

US# 4 23 6 7 6 3 5 8

Table 3. Powdery mildew rating of eight tomato varieties evaluated at the Penn State High Tunnel Research and Education Facility, Russell E. Larson Research Center, Rock Springs, PA – 2000. Tomato Variety Ultra Sweet Sunbeam Mt. Fresh Mt. Spring Royal Mountie NC Grape Daybreak Seedway 10250 z LSD (0.05)

7/13 1.8 0.0 1.1 1.2 0.0 0.0 2.1 0.0 0.2

Rating Dates 7/20 3.1 2.0 1.5 2.2 3.7 1.1 3.0 1.2 0.6

7/27 4.6 4.1 2.6 3.1 3.5 2.3 3.8 2.5 0.3

Powdery mildew rating on a scale of 1-5: 1 = least mildew on most leaves, 5 = severe mildew on most leaves.

457

Table 4. Variable and fixed costs of tomatoes evaluated at the Penn State High Tunnel Research and Education Facility, Russell E. Larson Research Center, Rock Springs, PA – 2000. Cost/high tunnel Variable costs Lime Fertilizer Safer soap (3%) Quadris 2F (1x) Lady-bird beetles (4x) Parasitic wasps (2x) Black plastic mulch Dripline Drip irr. system operation Transplants Transplanting labor Hand weed control Trellis labor (staking & training) Ventilation and monitoring labor Stakes Twine Machinery repairs & maint. Machinery operation labor Fuel Harvest labor Grading/packing labor Boxes Marketing Seasonal clean up labor Interest on operating capital Total variable costs Fixed costs Machinery and equipment Land High tunnel Total fixed costs Total cost Breakeven price

458

0.38 2.55 3.65 0.48 44.00 39.80 9.60 7.78 7.59 22.08 40.89 10.00 26.50 275.00 17.17 8.83 3.45 26.60 2.11 320.00 80.00 43.80 72.82 30.00 10.97 1,106.05

6.53 15.00 558.70 580.23 $1,686.27 $11.58 /32# lug box $0.36 /lb. $0.79 /kg

Promising Horticultural Crops for Production in High Tunnels in the ...

high tunnel facility in the Fall of 1999, there have been many horticultural crops grown in the high tunnels including; many vegetables, small fruits, cut flowers,.

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