2017 ASHS Annual Conference

Scheduling, planting, and harvesting of crops for fall and winter production in high tunnels is a key part of production planning. In field vegetable production, historical climate information is used for planning planting and harvest dates, and then actual conditions in the growing season can be used to adjust planting and expected harvest dates. A similar approach could be used in tunnels if we could predict conditions inside the structures based on outside conditions, and had information about crop development in response to the conditions. We have collected environmental data in structures on farms and at a research station over several seasons. Nearby outside data are available so that correlations between internal and external conditions can be described. We also have survey information about practices used by growers to manage the environment. Together with crop planting and harvest dates, this information can form the basis of an environmentally-based approach to crop scheduling in winter high tunnel production. We will discuss development of a scheduling tool using this approach