Looks great!!
The tomato plants make me jealous --- since I haven't (to hubby's dismay) figured out how to squeeze in a couple of tomatoes in my hoophouse!!
He's been known to make the statement
"Too bad we don't know someone with a real greenhouse so we could have fresh maters year-round, instead of just those bloomin' weeds."
LISA

I understand Lisa, I too watched those blooming weeds for several weeks. I read somewhere to place a fan blowing air on the plants would spread the pollen between plants. I tried it and in a few days little tomatos appeared.

Great pics! How do you keep the base from spreading out from the pressure of the panels? Am I seeing 2x4's or something sunk into the ground on the sides to prevent that? I have often thought of this type of gh. Maybe someday!
John in Pa.

You're right John. Those are 1X4's about 2' in length. I used boards attached on the inside to hold the sides together until the cover was installed. They were removed after the stakes were in place. Haven't had any hail yet but the season is approaching!

Here are the photos Fourwinds! I had to use a ventilation fan yesterday for the first time as the inside temp was approaching 90 degrees even with the window and door open. So far it's still standing!

Nice Job nichols!

Here are a few pics of the hoophouse I built with "scrap" and 3/4 " diameter PVC:

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I put some 55 gallon barrels filled with water inside mine to help retain heat overnight. I plan to build a woodstove for it this summer, so that perhaps I can grow some 'maters next winter.

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Your hoophouse looks VERY STURDY ! You did a NICE JOB!
-Junkmanme-

Nice work junkmanme!!!!!!!!!

Lot of fun isn't it!

nichols, I love you greenhouse. It is exactly what I am looking for. Not to tall, not to wide, and the price will be reasonable. I started looking for supplies and I found 20' cattle panels, which will add a little height and a bit of width. My wonderful wife said she would sew the onion skin together if I can't find a wide enough roll.
Thanks
Andre

YES nichols ! IT IS FUN !!!

Andre (PrairieRoots), Here is a "link" to ACF Greenhouses.
I think it is a good place to get greenhouse film for covering a hoophouse:
Click here

Best Regards,
Bruce (Junkmanme on Garden Web)

Bruce,
Thanks for the link. I like the idea of buying film but the foot. I spent last night trying to find a Canadian online supplier but didn't have any luck.
Thanks
Andre

Final report on the hoophouse! The plastic covering held up well and appears to be as strong as when it was installed. It held up well through 2 marble size hail storms. I will probably replace it next fall using some of the plastic left over from last year.

I look forward to the fall season and starting the process again.

Nichols

Hey, Nichols! Your hoophouse looks veeeeery familiar. ;)
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Except mine's naked this time of year. LOL! DH, RanchHand and I built this about two years ago after seeing another forum member using cattle panels to make a more conventional (square) greenhouse. That gave me an idea and we ran with it. (Please pardon the mess in the pics ~ my horses decided to have a field day with my pots and stuff I had nicely stacked out there. :( ) I had a website up for a while showing how to build it with cost estimates ($250! Cheap, huh?! LOL!), but my server decided to delete it *Grrrrr...* and my backup files are on my crashed computer. *DOUBLEGrrrrrrr...*

Anyway, I LOVE that window in yours!!! That's a really great idea! Lets lots more light in and is low enough to make a great bottom vent! I'll have to get DH to put one in the end of mine now. And you orient the door to face the south and have good luck with that? I was wondering if that'd work better for me, too, since it'd catch the breeze better. Good to know that works. We'll have to spin mine around this year before we use it again. Thanks for the ideas! :)

How did you attach the plastic at the bottom sides of yours? We put the plastic on last, wrapping the whole thing like a sausage wrap, tucking the plastic in under the sides. Therefore, the plastic was on the outsides of the wooden "base box". I notice that yours isn't like that ~ how did you do it? I'd LOVE to figure out how to do rollup sides, but will need to figure out a different way of holding the plastic on for that. The only way I've been able to get it to stay is tuck it around and under the entire thing and set plants on the part on the inside to weight it down so it didn't pull out. If I can find another way, I might get my roll up sides. I've tried stapling it to a long board, but it rips. Also tried running a length of duct tape along the board, then stapling through that and it still ripped. Third try ~ stapling it to the board, then nailing another board over that so it was a sandwich ~ board-plastic-board. Still ripped out. Fourth try ~ wrapped the plastic around the board a few times and stapled ~ still ripped. Any ideas? I might have to just bite the bullet and buy real greenhouse plastic, then use their attachment methods...

BTW, after using this for two or three winters, I've come up with some other ideas for this, so here's another couple hints for living with/using a hoophouse like this ~

If you attach wire across the middle of it on the ground level, from one sideboard of the box to the other, it holds it together great! We used 2x4s for the box and looped the wire around them, then "tied" it to itself and nailed for good measure. Works great!

They make 20' long cattle panels now, and we've bought some to try making a wider hoophouse from this year. I'll try to remember to post pics of it with dimensions on this forum if you'd be interested in how that turns out.

Something we tried last year that worked really well for a while ~ we doubled the plastic, holding the second layer off the first with lengths of more pvc pipe insulation running the length of the house and duct taped on the first layer to create an insulating dead air space. It worked great 'til the duct tape gave way in spots and even then was better than one layer ~ only had to turn the heater on half as much as the year before. Do you have any ideas on how else to attach the pvc insulation, somehow that it'd stay, without having to put holes in the first layer of plastic? We thought about using zip ties to attach the pvc insul. to the cattle panels, but that'd entail poking lots of holes in the first layer of plastic. We might still do that if we can't figure out any other way.

We did the ends differently than you did, too. How are yours attached? We put the plywood on the inside of the hoophouse, then put the plastic on, running it from the top of the house, around the pvc pipe insulation (running it all the way around the insulation and back in so it ran back inside the house), then over the plywood end panels and behind them. Then we pulled it tight, pushed the plywood ends up against the pvc pipe insulation to "clamp" the plastic in place and held the plywood end panels there with pipe hanger/clamp things, like this:
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It's hard to see how we did it since the entire thing is loose right now (we loosened it when we pulled the plastic off it this spring). But I'd be interested to know how you held the ends on and the plastic on as well. This little hoophouse works great, but there's always room for improvement.

I've got an idea in my head for a pit greenhouse to take advantage of the ground heat in my area (constant 68 degrees! Yeah!). So I'm thinking of digging a pit about 6" narrower and shorter than the hoophouse, then dragging the house over on top of it to cover. Besides the ambient heat, that should give me some more headroom for growing taller things. OR I could make the hole wider and build another hoophouse over it to fit, same as the ones we already have, but the hoophouse wouldn't have to be as tall, therefore could be wider ~ building it just like our houses, but kind of "smooshing" the cattle panels down some.

There was also a man on the forum way back when (can't remember his username ~ I've been gone so long I forgot how to log in here, so just signed up again! LOL! I was plain old "Wingnut" back then). Anyway, the man lived in Alabama I think, and he used a real neat setup for heating ~ hot water pipes lining the tables and walkways to carry water pumped from a regular household water heater. It circulated around in the house and he said it kept it quite toasty in there ~ ten degree difference from outside I think and his greenhouse was MASSIVE. I LOVE that idea! And I'd bet it'd work a lot better in our smaller houses, even with the same size water heater he used (fifteen gallon I think? it may have been a regular old 40 ~ can't remember).

To expound on that idea, I've been meaning to try making a seed starting table with that ~ building a low box filled with sand and with some pipes snaking through it, then set the flats of seeds right on top of the warm sand for bottom heat. I've GOT to try that this year. I'll bet one of those "beds" at each end of the greenhouse might even be enough heating for the whole house all winter in my zone ~ maybe a couple pipes extra for your zone.

Thanks for posting your pics of your hoophouse! It's a nice surprise! :) Aren't those little things just awesome?! LOADS better than fighting with pvc pipe frames, huh? I was about bald after just trying to build one of those things. *sigh* But I just loooooove my hoophouse! Especially when I'm out there puttering comfortably when it's 40 outside, wind gusts to 60mph and hail!! They're sturdy, aren't they?! :)

Hey Wingnut, I haven't visited this site in quite a while and was surprised to see your post and photos! Yes, it looks very familiar and looks like it has held up well! Thanks for the post a couple of years ago which led to construction of my green house!

I too removed the cover from my greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. It was still very durable and I think it would have made another year. I have leftover plastic that I plan to install this fall.

I purchased shade cloth a couple of days ago and plan to experiment with misting cuttings this summer.

I hope the photos below will answer your questions. Top Cat drifted by while taking photos and managed to get into one!

Nichols

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Wingnut, here is the link to the greenhouse with the water pipes running around the floor and benches.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alabama greenhouse