APPLYING NETTING TO THE WOOD PRAIRIE MINITUBER LONG TUNNEL. It’s been nine years since we’ve had a wet Spring like this one in which in order to get planting work done we must re-order our lives and dodge the rain. We’ve now had virtually 8″ of rain in the past month with more on the way.
Last Sunday we began our 2-day process and laid out the 600-foot of ground fabric and then intensive-planted tissue-cultured Potato Minitubers.
Come rainy days Monday and Tuesday we caught up shipping seed orders.
Then, here last Wednesday we placed into position and anchored the thirty 20-foot metal hoop-sections. We then laid out and secured the heavy-duty aphid-proof netting we brought in from France.
In this shot, we’re using a pair of tractor-drawn carts to reel-out the netting. Caleb’s brother-in-law Rob is up high on the right unit. Megan is out of view driving the tractor on the left. Caleb’s nephew-in-law Miguel and sister Amy work as a team keeping the netting taut and securing it with vinyl-covered ‘Wiggle Wire’ in bottom-edge wire channels. Out of view Kenyon is laying paving bricks.
Also, out of view working opposite on the right side, Caleb, Cassidy and Jim systematically secure the netting and laying brick
The paving bricks – placed nose to tail – serve to further anchor the tunnel and prevent critters from gaining entry.
By mid-afternoon we’d finished this job and went back to shipping orders.
Rain returned Thursday night around 9pm, right when Jim was finishing up his first cultivation pass through the field potatoes with the finger-weeder.
During a wet Spring the driest ground is found right before the next rain. Caleb, Megan & Jim
