If you have any questions let me know! Hats and Shirts: realfarmerdre.c... Email: realfarmerdre@gmail.com Instagram. / #strawberries #growingstrawberries #fruitfarm
Have you considered putting metal hoops over the rows to give you a 5 to 6 in space we’re the row cover isn’t touching the blossoms. That’s what I like to do have had great results.
I do not think you even need as much as 5-6 inches. Sometimes the problem is not the frost but the thawing, it takes heat, the latent heat of melting. The morning sunshine can also cause a problem. There are lots of solutions but it becomes a different matter when you are trying to cover 35000 plants cheaply and quickly. If you pull the row covers over wires the wrong way it will simply knock over the wires. Maybe sticks with rubber caps. They should last for years.
The cost difference isn't that much between the row covers and frost irrigation as long as u have the water source. we are gonna try to get a chlorinator or uv filter or something for next year so we can keep pumping from the creek. I posted a video of our frost irrigation from easter weekend
sorry you had a frost! it's hard to take a loss of potential before even starting the season's sales. Overhead sprinkler, pumping from a pond is something I'm used to. I think you might still lose blossoms, but it seems to hold the fruit pretty well. When you're growing fast, always more needs and wishes than the cash available. I'm not sure if blowing warm air underneath the covers or under plastic covers with some tenting structures put underneath is even practical. Looking forward to your income starting to come in soon!
We hit 25 or 26 here last night we lost about 1 bloom per plant with double row covers we should have ran the water but just worry about our water source being dirty and don't wanna makes anyone sick with red berries on the plants.
You should consider Irrigate strawberries. Got down to 26 degrees here in SC last night and no damage. I did lose my entire bean crop tho, so that’s a bummer. Keep your head up bud we’ll get thru it!!
@@CuriousEarthMan I have both, and sprinklers are old school. It Gets the job done and you don’t need labor and constantly to take covers on/off and are a pain in windy cold fronts. I feel sprinklers have more protection over covers and the quality of the berries and the plants are much better versus having them covered. I prefer quality berries over the few more quantity that covering will produce. Research Will say otherwise, but @farmerdre should consider sprinklers. Or at least experiment with a section to compare 👍
That's really difficult to have lost your berries to frost. Next time try The Pulsator 205 which protects crops from frost or heat damage. It's a real game changer in the industry.
Here at Blue Eye Strawberry and Maple Syrup has not been Cold but the warm weather, we are in western Pa! Our strawberries are about three weeks ahead and some have started blooming already and our weather drop down to teens the last couple nights!
Hey Dre!! Great video, sorry you lost so many flowers. How are the strawberry plants in the high tunnels doing? I would love to see a breakdown at the end of the season comparing the yield per plant outside vs. high tunnel.
Dude we scrambled like crazy to get everything covered yesterday. We had no means of covering crops so we had to make a hardware store run and build everything. Got it done though.
That’s why i just use sprinkler irrigation. Just showed up at midnight and turned her on. Sure it’s a pain working all night and freezing but saved my berries.
@@MadebyKourmoulis Yeah, we have sprinklers running all night when it’s gonna freeze when the plants are in bloom. It’s a lot better than covering them that’s for sure!
@@johnsalcido5436 interesting. We left our strawberries uncovered. To young to produce fruit yet. Our main concern was tomatoes and squash. Both are on drip irrigation.
.. 2000 tomatoes .. under a tarp w/a few light bulbs .. for 3 nights now .. ( i'm in trouble ... lol / ... surprised .. only lost 400 .. had more starts saved ... my knowledge-knot just got bigger ... lol
I wish I could post a picture, my home is filled with tomato pepper and flower plants,no heat anywhere else. Those early tomatoes will cover the loss and then some.
here in eastern Colorado, we had 13 degrees Monday night, same on Tuesday. I have 2 greenhouses- one heated, one not. I put 3 layers of frost blanket on the plants and turned on the electric heater...and a miracle! I lost nothing. But wow...last Spring we had 25 degrees in June. I want to move somewhere else! Good Luck everyone
The covers don't work we learned that this year you need frost irrigation+row covers to get below 28f even 2x or 3x row covers don't work row covers don't add heat like frost irrigation they buy time covers don't add heat if it gets cold enough for long enough they are close to worthless all they did was keep us from losing all the open blossoms
Too bad about the lost blossems, but very interesting (as a colleague strawberry farmer) to see the diffrence between the ones that are touching and those that aren't.
Thanks for all your video's, love them! I have so many questions: what about companion planting ? in the rows in between, is the relative humidity not a problem (there 80%) ? do you think I could start a strawberry farm in tenerife (island left/ west of africa) ?
Hey Dre, we've all been hit hard by this stupid weather. I asked about the exact amounts of the different items you mix for your tomatoes...Just curious. I feel for you with this weather. We used to say "well, that's farming in Colorado." But wow, now it's "That's farming period." good luck
@@MadebyKourmoulis seriously man!! Yea im very disappointed I had been loving on them matters since early feb when I started the seeds. Feel like my dog died lol
That sucks, I'm over in Loxley and we had a late frost. I held off on planting my tomatoes just to be flooded by the rain we had for a week, I lost around 100 plants and what ones made it, really got set back. The weather this year has sucked, last year I had my tomatoes planted almost a month earlier and had an amazing crop. We'll see about this year, not off to a good start. Nothing you can do about the weather, just part of farming!
@@kjjohnson9270 yea appreciate that encouragement bro, I had 3 that made it but they are horrible looking....but hanging on hell they may come through for me. I think next yr I won't start so early, I mean I started plants early February so maybe I will push it to March next yr before I start. I have a bad habit of getting the fever to garden ya know it's a bug I think we all get.
Dang buddy I know the feeling were going to loose a lot of berries to 28 last night and going to be around freezing tonight and our grannysmiths blossoms are now brown but that's farming God Bless yall
