ontheteam, My brother and I built a railroad rail bender. We used it for the hoop bending. It was a little awkward, but work just fine. The rail bender is basically two rollers in a frame with a third roller above the middle of two lower. The top wheel is pushed down by a 12 ton bottle jack. It's basically a shop press that you can roll / arch stock through. You push pull the stock through, then apply a little pressure and do it again. Rebar, cheap and availablity. I don't think we can get 20ft lengths of conduit on the Island. It could be ordered, but not off the shelf supply. Eric

Are you planning to remove the poly in summer? That would be my plan, just shade cloth in summer. Poly plus shade cloth in winter. The most durable and best for the money shade cloth is woven black polypropylene. I use 30% but also have a very good evaporative cooling system which is a lot more effective cooling in the desert than anything else. You might want 40-50% shade cloth. Mine has lasted 10-40 years of part time use.

the last thing i wanna do is fight on garden web but jeeze ur kinda snotty arnt ya? its not a hobby for me either. but the house i wanna create is. ive been in the growing business for over 20 years and have degrees and experence and such. so quit trying to pull rank. no u didnt say anything useful, maybe u need to re-read ur posts. i hope u arnt like that with everyone... what kinda information is outthere on growing moss in a poly house??????? u tell me? go ahead, search moss house. go ahead and use google search. see what u come up with. and all that is besides the point. as per my original post, im asking for someone with 'any advice, experences or comments will be greatly appreciated'. u seem to have none of the above so ur so called 'answers' are not great appreciated. 'You think GW is going to give you all the answers?' no, but i was hoping someone out there would have some helpful experence, not snotty answers like 'google poly'. 'Try calling a poly company and asking an experienced salesman. At least they get paid for their time.' yes i have talked to a few, farmtek et all. they sell stuff, they dont grow stuff. again, looking for experence, not snotty answers. as to the part about being paid for their time, if looking for experenced shade hoophouse growing of moss is such a hassel for u to answer because ur little precious time will be taken up, i have a piece of advice for u, DONT ANSWER IF U DONT KNOW THE ANSWER. its perfectly viable for u to keep ur wicked little snotty comments to urself. 'At least I did answer...You keep waiting for more.' what answer? 'google poly' is ur answer??? u really think that is an viable answer to a question? u have neither any advice, nor it seems experences or comments that will be helpful. so again, i move on to others that might be helpful, not snotty. froggy

OK, update. Hoops are 13'1" center to center, looks like 1 1/8" (OD) galvanized pipe. Couldn't get a good measurement of height or total length the way they're stacked, but I could barely reach the purlin when it was assembled so I will assume that even if they are "squished" so they're a little taller than 6' 6.5" (6'7" allowing for OD), the pipe was probably standard length for top rail - is that 21 or 22ft? Then of course they were set in "receivers" buried in the ground, with a bell end sticking up above the baseboards they were clamped to, so the ends of the hoops were about 6" off the ground (like B option above). I want to set them up even higher (buy new pipe to drive into the ground, use the old ones to connect them inside the sidewalls?), really like 2ft sidewalls so I can get over 8ft tall in the middle and have *some* room on the sides for crops. Also, I want to put the hip boards high enough to put gutters and downspouts on to try to put a couple of rainbarrels up for irrigation. Sherwood - when you say use fence posts to raise them up, you mean steel T-posts or cedar fence posts? I'm assuming every hoop. Here's the problem - I have (I think) 96 hoops that were originally placed 3ft apart, using what I'm sure is CCA treated lumber. I could replace the lumber with new (ACQ or CAB - saw some on Craigslist, right here in town, guy is checking what it is for me, but he's got some 6x6x8ft posts and 19 2x8x8ft planks - that would give me 76ft in length if I used them as baseboards) - but still wouldn't be "organic" (not that I'm going for certification). Probably would have to replace all the fasteners anyway, lots of the clamps look white, not sure how long galvanized lasts even with CCA. Area where I have cleared is about 48x76, small rise to south but I don't think it blocks much sun (and I'm not growing 4 seasons), I can place it far enough away that I think I can catch southerly breezes (and it's a convenient place to put a tank if I want to pump into it - that's another story since GAP says not to use pond water). BUT... the land slopes from west to east, maybe a couple of feet over the 48ft width. Area is more level going N-S, with an existing swale to the north. Another rise (long ledge) running to the north, wooded, and wooded to the East (why I don't want to go farther than 48ft E-W, plus it drops off more sharply past that), but clear to the West. Prevailing winds are from the south here in the summer, according to expert in HT design at workshop I took a month ago. So what's the best orientation and size? 1 (or eventually 2) 76ft long tunnels running N-S (I don't think that's really best, maybe 1 but easternmost one would get shaded and ventilation affected by western one and not best use of prevailing winds), 2 (or eventually more since there's room, but endwalls are more expensive) tunnels running E-W (but have to build up sidewalls to level them on east end, plant taller crops on east?, same problem with shading from southernmost tunnel(s), ventilation affected?)? Also looks like Farmtek's standard greenhouse film comes only in 24ft or 32ft wide rolls, so no burying edges with 24ft, lots of waste with 32ft if I try for 2ft tall sidewalls? Will 24ft wide work if I plan on rolling up sides anyway, and stack hay bales against the sides during colder months (again, just looking to extend the season a month or so in each direction)? IF we put the houses running N-S, we could make them shorter than 76ft and then move them since the area is more or less level in that direction. Don't know if that really matters since I'm not sure how many different types of crops I'd be growing, but if going N-S for another reason, I'd probably use Jay's design and make it/them movable for flexibility in the future.