Another question re: finished height of low tunnel hoop houses
14 years ago
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- 14 years ago
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Hoop Building Tomato temperature Questions
Comments (10)Well we made it through last night. It wasn't as cold as earlier predicted. It was 35 on Thursday night. I did cover everything up and turned on my additional heat. I went out this morning a 6:00 and it was 44 degrees in the building. I was kind of shocked. We had a strong 30-40 mph winds all night long. Today it is only suppose to get to 45 for a high. I left everything covered and closed up. I am worried about this weekend. I have seen 3 different forecast. One has us in the 27-30 range for lows and 50's for highs and a chance of snow. Another one has us in 34-37 for lows and 55 for highs. I guess I am going to plan for the lowest and hope for the highest! Tom- I have used milk jugs before, but I have another system that works the same. I use 4 inch pvc drain pipe cut into 6-8 inch lengths. I plant the plants and then put them around them. If there is a chance of cold, I cut the bottom off of 2 liter bottles and slip them over the PVC pipe. It is like a mini greenhouse. One year I planted out and the next week we had one 32-34 degree night and I spend 2 hours cutting and slipping close to a hundred bottles over pipes. It did get that cold during the night, and everything survived....See MoreHoop house questions for Zone 5a/b...
Comments (28)Elisa, I got the onions form a friend who was tilling up his garden late in the year. He didn't use them and thought they were too big and old. I say waste not, want not. I think they'll make it just fine, but some of those onions are about the size of an entire bunch that you'd buy at the grocery store, so I'm not sure about the whole "old tasting" thing. And thanks for the recommendations on the other lettuces. I'm always willing to try new crops. Jay, I've actually got row cover on order so I should be good there. The only problem is going to be with my job. I am a professional FireFighter and work 24 hr shifts, so if it gets too cold during the night that I'm at work, it won't be covered for that night. Hopefully since I chose all cold hard plants, it won't be a problem. The napa cabbage and kohlrabi sound great to me, but I'm afraid I'm all out of room. Thought I might have a little room to try a thin row of peas, but I have to research if they'll make it or not. I also gave a fleeting thought about heating with manure in the spots that I use to walk in there, but I've been reading of a lot of sites that say the minimum size of a pile to produce heat has to be 2 to 3 feet deep. I don't think I can get that much manure on a monthly basis, nor do I think I would have the room to dig the trench in there without crushing/messing up some plants. Guess I'll just stick to the milk jugs for now....See Moreplastic and ventilation for a low tunnel
Comments (24)ontheteam - How is the 4 foot hoop spacing working? And about how far do you push them into the ground? I was thinking either 4 or 5 foot spacing, with a piece of conduit running across the top. And I thought I should push them in about a foot. I'm also wondering if it would be easier to ventilate 2 or 3 shorter tunnels, instead of 1 longer tunnel. I'm thinking I might not have to worry about rolling up the sides if they're short enough. Maybe slugs won't be a problem, since it won't rain inside the tunnels. I have a lot of slugs, so I'm considering lining the bottoms with row cover material. That might at least slow them down, if they become a problem. So I now have 3 long tunnels... we used an iron bar driven in to the ground to make the holes to put the rebar in. At this point I do not "vent" per say but have the tunnies coverd on the north side w/ the original tuff lite bad the south face is the agribond. I use big spring loaded clips at the top of the arch where the materials meet and then use them every few feet on the bottom to keep critters ot. I usually have slugs galore.. but so far so good.. I did use LANDscape fabric on the ground. one lg roll from Costco was just wide enough to cover the whole floor in width and in the 3 40 foot long tunnels. I started tom seedlings right in the tunnels in late March They are now a respectable 4-6 inches tall . Here is a link that might be useful: links to p ics......See Morehoop houses/high tunnels
Comments (8)Becky, First of all welcome to the Cutting Garden forum. It is always good to have input from new people. Otherwise, we get pretty stale around here. Hightunnels are like potato chips. You can't have just one. We grow in hightunnels for season extension. The difference between a hightunnel and a hoophouse is that a hoophouse usually has 1' anchors driven into the ground, and the hoops span across ground to ground. Hightunnels generally have 4-5' side wall anchors. Basically this gives the grower more height at the sides to grow taller plants. Because our cutflowers grow taller in the hightunnel, we need this extra room. Hightunnels cost more because they require more lumber -- extra 2x6s for hipboards, etc. If your plants aren't going to grow very tall, then the extra expense of a hightunnel isn't necessary. Some growers say that their hoophouse or hightunnel pays for itself the first season. If you're not heating it, that's probably true. Our hightunnels are working out fine for us. We learn every year what we coulda, shoulda, woulda done differently. That's the name of the game with this specialty cutflower growing thing. The Hoophouse Handbook is good to have on hand. The newer one is called Extending the Season, (Six Strategies for Improvig Cash Flow Year-Round on Your Market Farm) 2005. There's also an article about winter markets. Two of our newer hightunnels with snow up to the hipboards. These are situated E to W. The others are situated N to S like the one in the background. Trish...See More- 14 years ago
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