Our winters are pretty mild and not much concern about snow loads. Our hoophouse is a simple 5/8 rebar covered with 3/4 irrigation tubing. Single layer of greenhouse plastic.

Hoophouse is part of a chicken composting system. One corner of the house is a chicken coop and they also hangout under the bench. During the day the are out in the composting area.

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Above the chickens we start salad and asian greens
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On the floor we have peppers, tomatoes and egg plant in large pots.
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Chickens scratching in compost.
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We start most of our veggies in a unheated greenhouse and harden off in a shade house.

Eric

Eric, I like it. You must have some happy chickens. Are those plastic pots stacked up? Do you have a commercial operation? Thanks for the pics. Luke

Luke,

My brother is a landscaper. Certified permaculture. We try to introduce edible lanscaping where we can.

I'm more involved in the "vegetable starts" of the business. We sold somewhere between 500 and 700 plants in 2009. Local Farmers Market.

Yes, That is a big pile of nursery pots behind the compost pile.

Seed starting bench with heat mat, in the back ground.
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Raised bed in the greenhouse
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This is an old picture of the shade house. It's total inclosed now.
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Eric

Double-wall is better in that zone, even better another insulating white fabric layer on the N side between layers of film. Cheaper is roll-up sides, but if you are gone and you can't vent on a warm day, look out. If you do vents over the doors, make them big and use screens. Some plastic won't warranty if touching PVC, so read fine print before you buy if you go PVC (EMT conduit is pretty cheap). Insulating below-ground to 10-12" will make you happy in the long run. If you can get 20 days of sunlight a month in Dec-Jan-Feb, you can eat fresh salad in the winter. The only limit is your imagination and money. Look at some of the pipe kits out there before you start, maybe the extra price is worth the time.

Dan

Eric:

I guess I have never seen more pictures of you operation. Very nice! I might have to copy that shade building plan. I am waiting to build a 24ish by 48ish garage/shed/greenhouse/mancave. On the south side I am going to build a lean to greenhouse. I will use this space to grow my starts instead of in the basement. However, this is a long term plan!.

Luke: Put up a hoop house is a piece of cake and you will get hooked. I started with 2 small ones 12 by 18 and 8 by 12. This year I will have over 3000 square feet under cover.

If you want to start on the cheap, use some pvc, build it see the advantages and then the next year build a steel framed one.

Good Luck!

Jay

Jay,

My brother and I built our 24ft x 36ft shops about the same time. He built a typical gable roof with rollup doors on both ends. Mine is a split roof with two rollup doors in the front and a small one out the back. We both have out grown the space. You should design your garage/shed/greenhouse/mancave and add 20ft or more. I will be adding a shed roof off my west wall and move my welding equipment out there.

Eric

Eric, beautiful stuff. I love seeing pictures of greenhouses like that at this time of year.

Luke, you're in Ohio. You get more snow than many of these other responders. Remember to design for a snow load. If you have a windy site, design for that too. I like the bow roof gothic arch design because it sheds both wind and snow fairly well. I've lost two other greenhouses (one round arch pvc conduit, one low gable pipe frame) because they didn't shed snow well enough.

On a 12 x 20, end doors will take care of ventilation pretty well, will be simpler than roll up sides, and you can seal one end up completely in winter without too much trouble.

Insulating down a bit below ground is good. If you have the materials (scrap metal roofing, for instance) a rodent guard that goes down maybe 18 to 24" would be good too.

Dan

eric,

Are those water jugs under your starting bench?

lipother,

Yes, do you like it. Go to your local Fire Station. They probably have square blue containers. Like in this photo. Foam Concentrate containers. The white ones are from our local water treatment plant. They are chlorine containers.

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Eric

My local food co-op gets maple syrup in exactly the same blue container. They get dish soap, laundry soap, and honey in white ones of a similar shape but which don't stack so nicely. I sometimes cut the tops off the blue ones on the table saw and use them for trash cans, mop buckets, harvest totes, etc.

Dan

You want to paint them flat black for best solar absorption, otherwise those are ideal container size and shape...

Dan

Ok, Why the containers for table supports? Seems there isn't enough surface to absorb heat to keep it warm thru the night. They certainly make a good table support but I think that I'd just use 4x4 legs so I'd have more open space. Are they filled with water? Please enlighten me.
Eric, I have 15 laying hens and I know they get messy after awhie so I'm wondering how you clean up the area under the tables? I like the idea and would like to keep a few hens in the hoop house. Do they create a lot of dust?

Luke

luke oh,

I used about 400 litres of water last year. I used black garbage bags over ice cream and other containers, plus the rain barrel etc. I found the water didn't have any impact on the temperature until it got to freezing. Then, the heat transfer required for freezing held the temperature at that point. Outside temps frequently dropped to -5 to -10 C (low 20's F)

Luke,

There are (60) five gallon containers under the bench. 300 gallons of water. I have not done any calculating and not sure if I even know how.

Have not noticed much in the way of dust. The chickens hang out outside most of the time. Only inside roosting at night. He did set it up so the mesh can be pulled down for cleaning. He also put two white plastic 55 gallon drums under the bench. Not sure how much benefit they are either.

Eric

Updated photo of water bench taken today Feb. 17th 2010

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Eric

Nice setup!

Eric what are the lights over the seed trays? ...

ontheteam,

Full spectrum fluorescents lighting. Reflector is a piece of foil bubble insulation. Like what's on the north wall.

See link below.

I've kind of highjacked this post. Hope Luke doesn't mind.

Eric

Here is a link that might be useful: ValuTek Compact Fluorescent Lights

Eric, How do you bend the Rebar? Why that VS conduit?

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

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ahhhhh so not something I can do here lol... Not being able to get conduit is a small price to pay for the GORGEOUS place you live.( I lived in Lakewood WA for 10 years before moving back to MA.) The Name is Michelle BTW nice to meet ya.

Michelle Bonjour comment allez-vous

Nice to meet you.

The link below is from a post here called: "Another question re: finished height of low tunnel hoop house"

Take a look its doable. Many people here to help with any questions.

Au revoir

Eric

Here is a link that might be useful: Conduit bender

Luke__oh,

How is your hoophouse coming along. Any interesting ideas?

Eric

Eric, did you build that greenhouse yourself or purchase the frame somewhere? I like that look. I am in Ellensburg, WA so it needs to be good wind deflector in the Spring.

rather than paint the containers black or covering them with black plastic use black fabric dye to color the water inside. That will heat the water not just the surface of the container.