BROOKINGS — SDSU Extension is offering the public a chance to participate in an educational, hands-on high tunnel build on the SDSU campus in Brookings.

The four-day workshop, "How to Build a High Tunnel," is on May 7-8 and May 14-15 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. Registration is required, and space is limited.

Tickets are $20 per person per day, which includes lunch, snacks and all necessary safety equipment. To register, visit the SDSU Extension Events page here and search “high tunnel.”

Participants will gain hands-on experience as they help construct a 30-by-96-foot gothic-style, double-poly high tunnel at the SDSU Specialty Crop Research Field-South at 1601 University Blvd.

Any adult age 18 and up interested in building a high tunnel is welcome to attend. Prior experience in construction or with high tunnels is not required, but participants should be willing to do light construction tasks that include bending, lifting and using power tools.

“This event is for all to learn together,” said Kristine Lang, SDSU Extension assistant professor and SDSU Extension consumer horticulture specialist.

Also known as a hoop house, a high tunnel is a protective structure used to extend the growing season and improve the quality of produce. An increasingly popular option for vegetable and flower growers, high tunnels offer a less expensive alternative to greenhouses. Plants in a high tunnel are still grown directly in the soil, unlike a greenhouse.

SDSU Facilities and Services staff will share what they learned constructing the first high tunnel on the SDSU campus. Farm experts from eastern South Dakota will also serve as construction team leads and will share experiences from their own high tunnel builds.

The workshop is a culmination of on-farm high tunnel field days and ongoing high tunnel research that has been led by Lang in partnership with extension and research experts at SDSU and North Dakota State University.

Funding for this workshop series is provided, in part, by the South Dakota Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Specialty Crop Block Grant Sub-recipient award 2021HR133SDSU3.

For more information and a tentative schedule of events, visit the SDSU Extension Events page here or contact Lang at 605-688-5796 or email Kristine.Lang@sdstate.edu.