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Dates of the workshop were July 15, 16 and 17th, 2011. The Rawlins project was a 16-ft x 32-ft Hard-Sided High Tunnel. This project was funded by a grant from the Wyoming Department of Agriculture.

Project update Provided by Maxine Herring Carbon County Fair Grounds Manager

What have you learned from growing things in the High Tunnel?

We have learned a lot about biological control of aphids and are learning more about fungal control on squash plants.

“It was a trial and error situation since it was so late in the season getting the HT built. We transplanted the tomato and squash plants from our garden area, and they took awhile to take off but they produced nice squash and tomatoes for the most part. I planted green beans, green and hot peppers, dill, squash, tomatoes and cucumbers in the beds I had started. Everything produced something except the cucumbers and they were shaded and hidden by the squash plants which grew twice the size from outside. It was amazing the size of the squash plants by the time we removed them from the bed.

Six raised beds were started. We had a lot of fun and I can’t wait for a full growing season. The bed with the radishes did very well [even though the plants were not started] until Sept. It is amazing how well the produce did on such a short growing time.

We are in the first stages of advertising the HT. We will start taking applications for [use of] the HT March 1. On a first come first serve basis. I have had people (10 or so) come and look at the HT. Some people I have talked to did not realize it was open to the community since it was placed on the fairgrounds but the word is getting out.

I am trying to get my parents to build one at their place west of here. Don’t know if it’s going to happen this year or not but they have looked at this one at the fairgrounds and are pretty impressed with it. I have not heard of any other HTs being built in this area.

We still have to find the right temp during the fall to keep things growing. If we rolled the sides on some days it would cool off too much and then others it would get too hot if we didn’t. This is something we are going to have to continue to work on and keep recording the temps to know when it is just the right temp.

We have only had one issue with the HT design and I think that was human error. The roller on the south-east side of the HT came apart from the skin and I think it was just the screws came out.

I had bean plants germinate the first week I planted them. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I had three crops of green beans from the two rows I planted in July. I wouldn’t have been able to produce any beans planting them outside that late. I just did that for fun to see what could be grown in such a short period of time, which it’s not such a short period of time inside the HT.

The first frost outside was late Sept. and everything froze on Oct. 7th.

If you need anything more let me know. Thanks for the great opportunity to do this. I can’t wait to begin again.”

Maxine