For those of you who are not familiar with the Rocky Mountain region, we grow our vegetables in a very high and dry climate. The Rozanski family farm is at 5,300 feet (1700 M) of altitude. Our farm averages only about 15 inches (35 cm) of moisture per year, with much of that falling a snow in the winter. Summer rains tend to be hard, and frequently include damaging hail, so we actually prefer to rely on irrigation water that is sent to our from via huge irrigation canals that were built in the 1860's to capture mountain snowmelt. This irrigation water only flows to our farm from May 15th through September 15th, however, so getting our crops started early in the year forces us to rely on either water from our pond, our shallow well, or our very expensive domestic water tap.

While our arid climate makes growing anything quite difficult, the greatest problem we face is cold. People who move here from more humid climates are universally dismayed at our short growing season. As an example, our last Spring frost at our farm in 2003 was on June 6th, while our first Fall frost was on September 13th. In a growing season that short it can be extremely difficult to grow warm-weather crops, such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Complicating our growing during 2003 even further was the fact that June was one of the coldest June's on record, with nighttime temperatures that frequently dipped below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. This cold in the evenings totally shuts down the growth of many crops overnight, greatly reducing the ultimate yield. I cannot count how many times we heard at our Farmer's Market stand from home gardeners last summer about how their backyard crops failed to produce before frost.

Given what I've just told you, I think you would have to believe that last year was a disaster for the Rozanski family farm. Actually, it was our second-highest grossing year in our history! We only failed to beat our 2001 record because we lost 50% of our basil seedlings (basil is the crop that generates our greatest cash...) when their trays accidentally were allowed to go dry while Nanette and I were away on our winter trip last year. How we manage to do so well, while growing in such a tough environment, is the subject of the rest of this essay.

To begin, as an organic farmer, I start all of my own seedlings from seeds. In the picture shown Nanette is standing in front of my seedling growing shelves, holding a new tray of basil. These basil seedlings were planted on 11/18/03, and transplanted into single pots about two weeks ago. They will go in the ground in our 11,000 square foot greenhouse on February 1st. Each of the shelves of my seedling growing area consists of 4 double banks of 4-foot florescent lights. The lights sit about one inch above small, clear plastic tray covers that essentially turn each planting tray into a mini-greenhouse. Each 4-foot shelf holds six trays, and I have 12 shelves available during peak times. Given that most trays hold 64 seeds, I can grow over 3,000 seedlings simultaneously in this small area. I grow about 9,000 seedlings each year, so the shelves go through three entire rotations. (click on image for larger view)

When the plants are 4-6 weeks old, I remove the plastic covers from the trays in order to begin hardening off the tender seedlings. Harsh experience has shown me that if I don't gradually allow the little plants to acclimate to the cooler temperatures and lower humidity outside of their protective covers, they die. After staying under the lights for a week without a cover, I then transfer the trays of plants to the floor of my seedling building. While the seedling building has electric baseboard heating, the floor is still about fifteen degrees below the temperatures under the florescent lights. This makes the floor an ideal spot to get the plants not only used to colder temperatures, but also the natural light that streams in through the fiberglass roof.

Once the plants are hardened off, it's time to move them into the greenhouse. In the past, we would move the seedlings one tray at a time, and immediately transplant them into larger pots. This process was not only incredibly time-consuming, but also used up a huge amount of potting soil. Since we have to produce our own potting soil in order to assure that it is completely organic, the mixing of soil has been a huge task for us during transplanting time. The cost of maintaining the greenhouse above freezing at all times (in order to protect the seedlings) has also been a dreadful expense, with $2,000+ heating bills being common. When our natural gas supplier announced an 80% increase in the cost of our gas this past Fall, I knew I had to figure out something different. (click on image for larger view)

The solution I arrived upon was a device that has long been available for home gardeners called a Wallo-Water. These devices are essentially small greenhouses formed by 18 linked tubes of plastic two feet high. You start the season by filling the tubes 50% with water. When they are half full, the tubes naturally lean into each other, creating a closed area at the top in teepee fashion. The theory is that you can plant your seedlings into this space enclosed by the tubes of water two months before the normal planting times in your area, and the plants will then be completely protected from frost by the moderating temperatures given off by the water.

While my initial test with these devices were quite promising in terms of the protections they afford, I did discover that installing them is quite literally a pain in the !@#. To fill each of the 18 tubes with water you have to have a team of three people. One person works ahead of the other two, setting the empty tubes around a bucket farm. The other two people fill the tubes, with one person crouching down to hold the tubes open one-by-one, and the second person then carefully inserting a watering wand (minus the sprinkler head) into each tube. It is agonizingly slow work, and makes you stretch muscles you normally don't use. The two guys who help me on the weekends didn't like this work at all. Even three days later, my hamstrings still feel so sore this morning that it's like someone beat them with a steel rod... (click on image for larger view)

To make a long story short, I bought over 1,000 of these devices, and I spent last weekend transplanting 350 pepper seedlings into them. I then turned off the heat in my greenhouse, despite the fact that the weather report calls for temperatures in the Boulder are to drop into the teens while we are on our trip to California and Arizona. I checked the pepper seedlings on Monday morning, and they looked great! Just to be safe while we are gone, however, I draped all of the Wallo-Water tubes with floating row cover. I've used this incredibly thin spun plastic fiber for several years as a frost protector, and it has worked quite well down to about 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Between the two, I figure we have a good shot of this process working. (click on image for larger view)

As an aside the economics of this program look pretty good. While the Wallo-Water devices cost about $1.80 each, and installation requires about another 50 cents in labor, the cost savings on natural gas are about $1,500 per month. That amortizes the cost of the Wallo-Waters pretty darn quickly. If they also provide the superior early growth that they advertise, then this could end up being a wonderful new way to extend our growing season in this harsh mountain environment. I'll know when I get home if my pepper plants survived. If the peers are OK the basil plants will go in weekend after next. The bissest step will be to then try the Wallo-Waters outside, where we frequently have Ppring winds in excess of 100 mph. That should be interesting... I'll write an update for you on this grand experiment in climate controlled agriculture as soon as I have some concrete results. (click on image for larger view)

Happy growing!

Chuck