Season extension

Season extension in agriculture is any method that allows a crop to be grown beyond its normal outdoor growing season and harvesting time frame, or the extra time thus achieved. To extend the growing season into the colder months, one can use unheated techniques such as floating row covers, low tunnels, caterpillar tunnels, or hoophouses. However, even if colder temperatures are mitigated, most crops will stop growing when the days become shorter than 10 hours, and resume after winter as the daylight increases above 10 hours. A hothouse — a greenhouse which is heated and illuminated — creates an environment where plants are fooled into thinking it is their normal growing season. Though this is a form of season extension for the grower, it is not the usual meaning of the term.^[1]^[2]^{: 2, 43–44}

Season extension can apply to other climates, where conditions other than cold and shortened period of sunlight end the growing year (e.g. a rainy season).

^ Fortier, Jean-Martin (2014). The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming. New Society Publishers. pp. 119–125. ISBN 978-0-86571-765-7.
^ Coleman, Eliot (2009). The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses. ISBN 978-1-60358-081-6. OCLC 262883165.

[Fortier-1] Fortier, Jean-Martin (2014). The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming. New Society Publishers. pp. 119–125. ISBN 978-0-86571-765-7.

[Coleman-2009-2] Coleman, Eliot (2009). The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses. ISBN 978-1-60358-081-6. OCLC 262883165.

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