How can Indiana farmers increase their growing season?
One Indiana University professor will try to answer that question, thanks to a $128,000 grant from the Indiana State Department of Agriculture.
For his research, IU School of Public Health assistant professor James Farmer will study high tunnels, which are often mistaken for greenhouses. High tunnels (or polytunnels, as they’re sometimes called) are long tunnels placed over crops. Unlike glass greenhouses, which are generally permanent heated fixtures that cost more money to operate, high tunnels use passive sunlight to heat plants and can be taken down during the regular growing season.
“You can really increase your yield per square foot under high tunnels,” said Farmer.
So, Farmer said he hopes his research findings contribute to greater food security and provide economic gains.
Some research already exists to support the benefits of high tunnels, said Farmer, but Indiana growers have mixed experiences with them. So the researcher will survey growers to find out the most successful ways they can be implemented.
“We’re looking for common denominators,” he said, in order to put together a technical manual for best practices.
Some growers believe that by using controlled amounts of sun, the tunnels heat and help grow crops outside of their typical growing seasons. In addition, tunnel walls can help keep out wind, insects and rain, so growers have control over how much water gets to their plants.
Farmer’s study will focus on growers of fruits and vegetables, a subset of what are known as “specialty crops.”
In other words, “a lot of things you’d see at the farmers’ market,” said Farmer, like tomatoes, peppers or kale.
He will work with an IU postdoctoral student to gather data. Purdue collaborators will lead agro-ecology research. His study is one of five projects funded by the ISDA through a U.S. Department of Agriculture block grant. By the end of this year, the USDA will have invested $1.5 million since 2012 into similar resource conservation efforts nationwide, including the construction of more than 169 high tunnels.
Farmer’s team will survey 400 high tunnel users, complete case studies on 16 farms and conduct specialty crop production trials in high tunnels. That will result in the first official assessments of the utility and contribution of high tunnels and their production of specialty crops.
