Thanks for the reply. I actually was going to apply it to my blackberries. The japanese beattles decimate the crop. Last year I got zero berries. They destroyed them. So I was wanting to go into this year with a real plan. I was looking on gardeners supply. They have some row cover thats 80 percent transparent. I could rap the bushes with these and at least save most of the crop. I would think anyways.

Research at some universities has indicated that Floating Row Covers might increase the soil temperture under them by 1 to 3 degrees, but the greatest benefit is that they offer some frost protection keeping the plants growing under those FRCs 2 to 4 degrees warmer than plants without. All the things you listed are frost hardy and do not need the protection these might offer except possibly for insects and other critters.

Whoops! I'm taking too long to compose again---watching AFV while I'm doing it! Here's my take on the subject, B2, written before I saw your reply! I way second Dan's comments about your little garden pup tent, B2. It would need to be opened every day, and even if you managed to stake the bottom of it down securely, the first time a good gust of wind blew into the open side, I suspect it would rip right off of the grommets and be in Kansas by the time you got home. I really don't think it would help much with squash either. If you sow them directly in the ground this year, after danger of frost, I think they'll do much better than the ones you started inside last year. Then, after they come up, keep an eye on overnite temps, just in case, and you can easily cover them with a large pot or a corrugated cardboard box overnite on the few nites it might get too cold for them, and by the time they get too big for a pot or box, overnite temps shouldn't be any problem anymore--and even if we still got an unusually cold nite, you could still throw an old bed sheet (or row cover) over them for the nite. Summer squash just don't take that long to start producing, and starting them after danger of frost gives you plenty of time for a good crop. (Something else I'd worry about! Squash gets mildew VERY easily, and if it were me, I'd be afraid that if they were closed up under something that didn't allow for at least some air circulation, they just might develop the mildew very early on, and once they get it, it's virtually impossible to get rid of it again.) With spinach, you don't want the little pup tent---unless you're gonna air condition it! ;-) Spinach LOVES cold temps, and if it was getting heated up during the day in the tent, I think it would just cause it to bolt sooner. No special care for spinach! Just get it in the ground really, really early--when it's still cold out! Dan, sorry I never got back here, but thank you for the info and recommendations up on top when I first posted! And I was gonna ask what EMT was too (Emergency Medical Technician!), so thank you for asking B2! When I was a kid, conduit was just---well---conduit! It's what my parents made our big growing quonsets out of---and that was LONG before anybody dreamt of PVC! "Black poly pipe" seems to me it's kind of flexible/floppy to do a very stable support job. Have you ever used it? (You say there's some in that picture, but I sure can't figure out which it is!) How does it compare to PVC? PVC is what I was thinking of using if I decided I needed to put in some sort of support! I'm thinking that with some "connectors" from Lowe's, HD, or Ace, I could fairly easily put together some little row-size hoop tunnels to fend off the leaf miners in spring! Or maybe I'll come kidnap you some nite, and for "ransom" I'll make you build some good protection structures for me! ;-) You seem to be really good at inventing protection and support structures! I'm not really worried about cold protection! My big problem is getting the cold crops in before it gets too HOT out! LOL! Do you know what brand the stuff Nick's carries is, Dan? You're awfully far away from me! I'll be going to Paulino's (on a Wednesday Senior Discount Day) soon to get another bale of soil, and I'll check out what the lightest weight row cover they carry is. Kat, I checked Pellon out online a little bit more and was very surprised to see it comes in 20" widths! It's been a long time since I bought any, but I thought I remembered it being wider than that! But I did find--online--a Pellon product that might be a possibility, and if I get over to the local JoAnn, I think I'll check it out if they carry it. It's 45" wide, and a 10 yard bolt is just $16.50---online! Forty five inches would be WAY wide enough for what I want it for, and if it's thin enough, that would be a pretty good deal---IF they carry it! At least I have a couple more months to figure out what I want to do! Wanna help me kidnap Dan, B2??? Skybird

Thanks, everyone. I do not have plastic over the hoop. I use it in the summer for pink eye, purple hull peas which can get several feet long. This year I didn't plant anything under it for the winter, so never covered it with plastic. I like to use the space under it for spring greens because they will pretty much be over before the peas and up and providing shade. We had a 5 day forecast of moderate night time temps when I planted them, but an unexpected cold front moved through a day or so later, so the heavy cover. As I tried to remove it, they would wilt, almost to the point of looking near death. I just went out and gave them a good watering. The sun won't hit them for another hour. I took the cover off and will keep an eye on them. If they wilt just a little, I will let them be, but if they wilt too much I may cover them but just for a couple of hours until the sun gets lower. I know they need to get hardened off more, was hoping for something between the two extremes I have subjected them to. I may throw a multi-layer cover of row cover directly over them if they wilt too much and just leave it on for a few days. Our nighttime temps are varying from low 30's to mid 50's, daytime temps from 40's to high 70's. Cwazy weather!