Stretch out your season
with hoophouses

By Marcia Miquelon, Outreach Specialist
UW Madison Healthy Farmers, Healthy Profits Project

If you want to extend your harvest season and improve your work environment, consider using an unheated, plastic-covered hoophouse for raspberries and strawberries. In addition to increasing your profits by giving you a longer market window, hoophouse berry production can benefit your health and increase your work efficiency.

Farmers and researchers in several states are growing hoophouse berries. In Holland, Great Britain, Japan, China and other countries hoophouse berry production (also called high tunnel production) is popular. Some farms in Japan and Great Britain are also growing PYO berries in hoophouses.

Season extension.
Hoophouse grown berries will ripen earlier than field grown berries, allowing you to get a jump on the market and extend the amount of time you have to make money off your crop. By spreading out your workload over a longer harvest season, you also reduce your stress and bodily fatigue.

"The hoophouse provides me with a five-week season six weeks prior to the regular strawberry season, and I have been able to sell these early berries at double the cost," claims Mike Finley, who has grown early-season strawberries in hoophouses in Janesville, WI.

Controlled environment.
In a hoophouse, you don't have to worry about rain splashing fungal spores up from the soil onto your berries and hastening rot diseases. Using drip irrigation, you can add water and nutrients with precision. "There's no need to use pesticides or fungicides," claims Finley, "since the plants are ahead of the bugs." This can reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals.

Easier on your body.
You can use raised beds, bags, or bench systems to create a more convenient height for your plants. This reduces the amount of stooping you and your workers do to harvest berries and to tend plants. In a hoophouse, rain won't keep pickers away, and you are also protected from wind, cold, and UV rays.

Is hoophouse berry production cost effective?
The startup costs of hoophouse production can be high. However, you may get a higher price for your berries if they are early season, off-season, or organic. You will need to analyze your own situation and compare expected yields and market price with the cost of production. It's possible to bend your own pipe framework and make a simple unheated structure cheaply.

How to learn more
There is plenty of detailed written information available on hoophouse construction and economics and on hoophouse berry research. For a reference list, visit the Healthy Farmers, Healthy Profits Project website at http://bse.wisc.edu/hfhp/ or call (608) 262-1054.

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