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- Tunnel Effect
- Growers use new method
to grow sweet cherries
- By Karen Gentry
Managing Editor
- Berries, vegetables, flowers and now sweet cherries are grown under tunnels. A pair of trellis experts have developed structures for growing sweet cherries under tunnels that are currently in use in California and Washington state.
Growers of late season fruits such as the Bing or Rainier sweet cherry or the Elliott blueberry may benefit from using tunnels to extend the season, according to Steve Kuhn, marketing manager for Wilson Irrigation and Orchard Supply of Yakima, Wash.
Kuhn and Dan McNamara, from the Quiedan Company in Salinas, Calif. have teamed up to provide the materials and installation needed to build the portable tunnels. Both companies have been in the trellis business for many years.
“Some friends in Washington asked us to get involved,” said McNamara. Growing berries under tunnels has been done for many years and is more prevalent in Europe.
With their knowledge of steel and metalworking, the pair developed the system. Key to the system is how secure components are anchored to the ground, McNamara said. Their system uses screw anchors, high carbon wire and wire tightening and tension devices. The basic structure includes anchor platforms and auger welded pipe and plated, galvanized, high-strength steel. They developed the bending equipment for the steel and the tools to put in the anchor platforms.
The tunnels, sometimes called Spanish tunnels or hoop houses, extend the season for fruit and protect the fruit from wind, sand and rain. The sweet cherries grown in California under the tunnels were two weeks ahead, although the fruit was affected by unusually hot weather, according to McNamara.
In Washington state the cherries were about a week ahead, which impressed McNamara as the tunnels were only installed for three weeks. He said the hoop houses must go 16 feet in the air, 16 feet wide and must be able to withstand high winds.
Kuhn said the tunnels need to be up before bloom and generally the crops are 10 days earlier. The cherries can be grown under the tunnels during the entire growing season, according to Kuhn. Light into the tunnels can be controlled depending on the film used with defused light or reduced light possible. Kuhn said the plastic can be moved up to let in air during hot weather.
“Generally the tunnels produce better yield and better appearance,” said McNamara. Extending the season on both ends has provided an economic benefit to growers, he said.
There are some disadvantages with growing cherries in tunnels. McNamara noted that mites spread faster in the tunnels compared to outside. “For every little disadvantage, there seems to be 1 1/2 to two advantages,” McNamara said.
Bees can present a challenge to growing cherries under tunnels, according to Kuhn. “Cherries do not have a nectar like a raspberry,” said Kuhn. Because bees are not naturally drawn to cherries, construction of something such as a triangle out of wood or an orange post helps direct the bees to the hives that are brought into the tunnels, he said. “They can also put nectar in the cherry trees to keep the bees in the area,” said Kuhn. He recommends bumblebees over honeybees. He said that pollination challenges present the “weakest link of the tunnels.”
With the tunnels there’s still a potential for mildew as well as bugs, Kuhn said.
The tunnels are a minimum of 20 cents a square foot compared to $1 - $4 a square foot for conventional greenhouses.
“Our pricing is really good. We’re leading the way in the business. “Once the benefits are seen it will be done on a larger scale,” said Kuhn. He stressed that they build tunnels and are not selling cold frames and they’re not in the greenhouse business.
“It’s a product that you can move from field to field. It’s a temporary structure, not a house,” Kuhn said.
Kuhn and McNamara sell and install the tunnels mostly to large vertically integrated commercial growers. They will provide the materials and installation instructions for smaller growers. “Once people learn how to do it (installation) they don’t need us anymore,” said Kuhn.
Kuhn said they started with the tunnels with blueberry and raspberry growers and then expanded to flowers and vegetables and now cherries.
He said the tunnels aren’t for all growers. “It has to be someone interested in changing their marketing plan,” said Kuhn.
Although Kuhn and McNamara cover the Southwest, California and the Northwest, they’re open to a wider geographic area. “We’re open to coming out there (East). We have the ability to go where we’re needed,” he said.
For more information contact Kuhn at (509) 453-9983 or McNamara at (831) 663-0770.
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