- High
Tunnels, Internet Help Growers Redefine Direct Marketing
By
Kimberly Warren
Staff Writer
- For many growers, colder
winter temperatures mean no more crops. But for one pair of Kentucky
growers, winter means continued work – and continued cash
flow.
Paul and Alison Wiediger – who own Au Naturel Farms in Pleasureville,
Ky. – purchased their first high tunnel in 1995 with a desire
to produce an early crop of tomatoes. Today, they have five different
structures with a total of 8,500 square feet, allowing them to grow
year round. A high tunnel is basically an unheated greenhouse with
only a manual ventilation system, Paul said.
“We figured that if we could come onto the market with earlier
tomatoes, it would give us a jump on the market,” Wiediger
said. “It worked just like we thought it would. Then, in the
fall (of that year), we had this plastic structure just sitting
there. That winter we started exploring what we could grow in it
trough the winter.”
Through that winter, Wiediger said they had – at one point
– 26 different types of greens. They also had oriental greens,
root crops, onions, beets and turnips. Today they grow several root
crops, tomatoes, peppers, salad greens, oriental greens, spinach
– and the list goes on.
“In moving to (growing) 52 weeks a year, it means we’re
always in front of our customers,” Wiediger said. “We’re
not having to come back and re-establish this customer relationship
every year.”
And that customer relationship is one that is based solely on what
the customer wants – not just what the Wiedigers have. When
they are ready to harvest their numerous high tunnel crops, they
don’t just dig in. First, the Wiedigers send out an e-mail
to their customers.
“More and more of our marketing is done directly to the consumers
using e-mail,” Wiediger said. “Once a week, we send
out an e-mail to our customer base telling what we have available.
They respond back via e-mail, and we actually harvest to meet those
needs. Basically everything we harvest is pre-sold.”
Wiediger said that their customers enjoy doing their business via
e-mail.
“It allows them to sit down and look at what you have to offer
at their leisure – not when they have 16 other things to do
so they blow you off,” he said. “It gives us an opportunity
to do some extra marketing. It’s easy for us to tell our customers
more about the product – how to use it, recipes. When we started
doing that…our weekly orders increased by 50 percent.”
As their customer base continued to grow and they continued to expand
their operation, Wiediger said that they learned that high tunnels
require some extra work.
“We’re amazed at these hoop houses or high tunnels with
no heat whatsoever. We were amazed at what all would grow for us
during the winter months,” Wiediger said. “But high
tunnels are very management intensive. You’ve got to stay
on top of it. You have to keep good records, but I think it can
have a lot of reward to it. It’s a lot more enjoyable working
in one of these things when its 15 degrees outside than when its
July and 80 degrees when you’re working outside.”
The Wiedigers use the tunnels in fall, winter and early spring.
And Wiediger said the thing most affecting their ability to produce
a crop in the winter is light.
“Light is the inhibiting factor rather than heat,” he
said. “We’re into our ninth season now, and we continue
to see that. Dark, gray days affect growth more than temperatures.”
Wiediger said that through observation and record keeping, they
have seen plant life slow down when light levels drop.
They still, however, take precautions with the cold temperatures
– Wiediger said it can reach down to zero or ten degrees in
the winter with light snow.
Their tunnels are 11 feet tall with wide-row bed spacing and small
aisles. He said the height, the structure and the airflow is important
in keeping the soil temperatures high enough for growing.
“One of the most critical aspects is that as long as we keep
soil temperatures in the upper 30s to low 50s, we have active microbial
life going on. And that allows produce to continue to grow,”
Wiediger said. “We constantly plant the soil all winter long.
But things do slow down. For instance, mesclun seeding takes 21
days from seeding to harvest, but in the winter that will become
five to six weeks. You’ve got to be aware of that slow down.”
Wiediger said that the slow down happens from mid-December to early
February where they live. Then, once light levels in early February
pick up, they see a rapid increase in plant growth. The Wiedigers’
high tunnels have a double layer of poly with air in between them
and a row cover inside for a few extra degrees of protection.
Through their nine seasons of high tunnel growing, the Wiedigers
have learned quite a bit about what it takes to grow 365 days a
year. And on top of presenting at numerous workshops and seminars,
the Wiedigers have published a book on high tunnel growing. They
started their book, “Walking to Spring,” after realizing
there was not a lot of information out there for growers who wanted
to learn about high tunnel growing – particularly in the winter.
“Walking to Spring” is available from the Wiedigers
for $15 plus $3.50 shipping and handling. For more information on
the Wiedeigers or their book, visit http://aunaturelfarm.homestead.com.
And for those looking for more information on high tunnels, Wiedeger
said to visit www.hightunnel.org
