? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? How a Hoop House Can Extend the Growing Season
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Today we discuss the greenhouse effect.
Farmers and gardeners have long used greenhouses to extend the growing season in cold weather. Now, hoop houses are gaining popularity. Hoop houses are sometimes called a temporary greenhouse or passive solar greenhouse.
A hoop house is basically a metal frame covered with plastic or other all-weather material. A common design looks like a high tunnel. Unlike a greenhouse, which uses a heating system, a hoop house is heated by the warmth of the sun.
Now, the United States Department of Agriculture has announced a program to help farmers who want to build hoop houses.
The department, through its Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, has been supporting a project in Michigan. That state has a short growing season.
As part of the research project, nine farmers were given materials and trained how to build and use a hoop house. The results showed that well-managed hoop houses can grow high-quality crops.
However, crops are not the only things that grow well. The research found that weeds grow faster in a hoop house. Weeding, seeding and watering requires at least as much work as crops grown in the open air. The researchers also advise growers to add compost material to the soil in hoop houses to build nutrients.
Eliot Coleman is an organic farmer and a writer in Maine who has helped popularize the idea of four-season farming. His ideas about hoop houses sounded good to John Biernbaum in the Horticulture Department at Michigan State University.
Professor Biernbaum tried hoop houses on the Student Organic Farm at Michigan State and had success. Project director David Conner says it was a "test drive" for the research on private farms. The agricultural economist points to the demand for locally grown crops. "People are hungry for good, fresh vegetables," he says.
Hoop houses for winter growing can even be found at the White House, where Michelle Obama has a vegetable garden. The houses are small because of limited space on the South Lawn.
A hoop house specialist at Michigan State University, Adam Montri, has videos on YouTube explaining how to build one. You can go to 51voa.com and find a link to his videos and also a link to our videos on YouTube.
And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Bob Doughty.
譯：
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?看拱形溫室如何延長生長季
這里是美國慢速英語（VOA）農業報道。
今天談論的是溫室效應。
農民和園丁們長期在冬天使用溫室大棚來延長植物生長季。如今，拱形溫室越來越受歡迎。它有時也被稱作臨時溫室或被動日光溫室。
拱形溫室是以金屬為支架，上面覆蓋塑料布或其他全天候材料制作而成。通常設計成像隧道一樣的模樣。和使用加熱系統的溫室不同，拱形溫室是用太陽的照射來加熱。
最近，美國農業部宣布了幫助有意愿的農民建造拱形溫室的項目。
農業部通過州際研究，指導和推廣服務來為密歇根州提供支持。密歇根州的生長季很短。
作為研究項目的一部分，九名農民獲得了原材料并接受培訓如何建造拱形溫室。結果證明，獲得良好管理的拱形溫室里可以生長出高質量的莊稼。
不過，莊稼并不是唯一生長良好的作物。研究發現，在溫室中，野草同樣生長旺盛。而且，除草，播種和灌溉所需要的時間并不比在露天狀態下少。研究員們建議種植者向拱形溫室中添加堆肥以提供營養。
艾略特.庫爾曼是緬因州一位種植有機作物的農民，同時也是一位作家。他幫助推廣了非季節性農作物種植的方法。他的理念得到了密歇根州立大學園藝部的約翰.伯恩鮑姆的共鳴。
伯恩鮑姆教授在密歇根州學生有機農場試驗拱形溫室并取得了成功。項目負責人表示，這是該研究在私人農場上的”試駕”。農業經濟學者指出了當地農作物種植的需求。他說到：”人們渴望得到優質新鮮的蔬菜?！?/p>
即使在白宮有一個用于冬季種植作物的拱形溫室，米歇爾.奧巴馬在那里有一個蔬菜園。當然，由于南草坪空間有限，該溫室面積較小。
密歇根州立大學的拱形溫室專家亞當.蒙蒂在YouTube網站上上傳了關于如何建造拱形溫室的視頻。你可以在VOA.com網站找到該視頻的鏈接，也可以在YouTube上找到我們的視頻的鏈接。
這里是美國之聲慢速英語農業報道，作者杰瑞森.沃特森。我是鮑勃.道蒂。
