New York Farm Viability Institute Website Press Releases 

PRESS RELEASE: September 22, 2006
Contact: Hans C. Wien, Cornell University, 607-255-4570
R. David Smith, New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc., 315-453-3823
Note: Highlighting shows connections to Cornell University, Penn State, and
NY’s Chemung, Delaware, Schuyler, Tioga and Yates counties

NYFVI-Funded High Tunnel Project Offers Growers High Hope of Profitability

Extending the growing and selling seasons by as much as 10 weeks is the focus of a high tunnel project funded by the New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc. Researchers suggest the use of high tunnels by New York growers will increase over the next four years with a resulting gain of $500,000 per year to the farm-gate value of NY horticultural crops.

High tunnels are unheated greenhouses. The structures protect crops from frost damage for earlier Spring growth and later Fall harvest. The tunnels can be four or five degrees warmer than outside temperatures. Growers use inexpensive irrigation systems to control moisture and humidity which helps reduce disease and insect problems.

Project leader Hans C. Wien, a Cornell University horticulture professor, says, “We want something simple and cost-effective that will produce profitable crops. High tunnels have been used for many years in China, Japan and Korea. We believe growers in New York can successfully put plants out in mid-April and grow until mid-November.”

Judson Reid with the Cornell Vegetable Program and Cornell Cooperative Extension of Yates County says producer interest in high tunnels has been steadily growing due to strong production data.

“Data from 2004 and 2005 shows high tunnels can produce 15 to 20 pounds of saleable tomatoes per plant and an average of 6-and-a-half pounds per plant of bell peppers. Those numbers definitely make this type of production something to consider,” Reid says.

Photo: CCE Yates County Educator Judson Reid checks tomatoes growing in a high tunnel.

Tomatoes are well-suited to high tunnel production but soil needs to recover from repeated tomato crops, so project participants are looking at the agronomic and economic feasibility of growing crops such as peppers, cucumbers and berries in high tunnels.

Reid says, “This project will evaluate the potential of cucumbers as a new product for extended season sales to local markets, wholesalers and through the Finger Lakes Produce Auction.”

In Delaware County, Cornell Cooperative Extension Educator Janet Aldrich is working with a small-scale grower who will compare raspberries grown in half of a high tunnel with a crop of field-grown raspberries. Aldrich says, “High tunnels provide the protection the crops need to grow high quality fruit with lower inputs. New York growers can use high tunnels to produce high-end crops that will add to their bottom line through extended fresh local market sales and value-added processing.”

Walter Nelson with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chemung County will evaluate the economics of high tunnel production. Nelson says, “Yield and input data versus average market prices yet to come from 2006 trials will help evaluate the opportunity for profitability with a variety of high tunnel crops, including tomatoes, cucumbers, sunflowers and other cut flowers.”

Wien says a cut flower grower in the Ithaca area has seen yields and profits such that the high tunnel may pay for itself in two growing seasons. Wien says, “This grower has distinguished herself as the first to have sunflowers for sale in the local market in the spring and that advantage brings a premium price.”

In Tioga County, Molly Shaw of Cornell Cooperative Extension is working with a grower with a high tunnel equipped with heat and electrical hookups that allow him to set out tomatoes as early as February. Shaw says, “We are collecting energy, labor and materials cost data to compare his tunnel operation with a basic, no frills tunnel.”

Shaw is also working with a Schuyler County grower using a medium-height tunnel to protect raspberries from fall frost during the harvest season. In Yates County, grower Howard Hoover makes 25-foot-square high tunnel frames that four people can pickup to move away from any soil problems or diseases.

Another feature of this project is the testing of different high tunnel cover materials and cover coatings at Penn State’s “high tunnel farm” in University Park, PA. Professors Mike Orzolek and Bill Lamont are growing bell peppers and sunflowers and closely monitoring temperatures and light in four high tunnels with new plastics that may offer additional protection to plants in the unheated structures. New York growers will compare high tunnel cover treatments in 2007. Testing of ground cover treatments and low tunnels is taking place at Cornell.

Cornell University specialists advising the project also include Biological and Environmental Engineering Professor Louis D. Albright, Horticulture Professor Marvin P. Pritts, Applied Economics and Management specialist Wen Fei Uva.

The New York Farm Viability Institute, Inc. is a farmer-led, farmer-driven, independent not-for-profit corporation that funds research, extension and innovative technologies for New York agricultural and horticultural producers. The Institute grants funds for projects that directly benefit producers at the enterprise level across farms of all sizes and all commodity areas. For more information, contact the New York Farm Viability Institute, 159 Dwight Park Circle, Suite 104, Syracuse, NY 13209, 315-453-3823, www.nyfarmviability.org.

For more information on the high tunnel project, contact Hans C. Wien, Cornell University Horticulture Department, 607-255-4570. # # #