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

sounds interesting. I use those silver reflecting auto shades to put in my sunshed to reflect more light to my plants. ~tom

In Santa Fe, I have extended lettuce and greens until late July by planting time and varieties. I found shade netting worked OK but not great, and the taste wasn't as good. I think heavily mulched soil is more effective than shade. Plants are very keyed into day length as well as soil warmth, and these two are what mostly causes bolting in lettuce. The best heat tolerant, long-day tolerant lettuces are the Batavians, and my favorite is Nevada, but I've been having trouble finding the seeds now. Red Grenoble is similar. This is a semi-heading lettuce that really stands up to heat...even those 90+ degree days in June and early July, before the rain (ha...what rain.) Romaines also do well in the heat. I like Little Gem and Rosalita. Plant summer lettuces around the average last frost date for your area, so you are too late this year. I also find Red Deer Tongue to be very heat tolerant. Some Butterheads are heat tolerant. I learned to extend my lettuce season from the "The Cook's Garden" catalog. Sow cutting lettuces weekly as soon as the ground can be worked. Sow spring lettuces (deer tongue, some butter lettuces) in early spring. Sow summer lettuces around the last frost date. For germination in warm weather, sow the seeds, cover with good layer of straw, water well. Check daily for germination and remove straw once most seeds have sprouted, or the seedlings get leggy fast. Don't forget about sowing for fall lettuces, too. I usually put my fall lettuces in mid August (probably late August or early Sept for ABQ, and cutting lettuces in early September. Also, don't forget about escarole and chard for summer greens (need cooking.) I gave up long ago on spring and fall broccoli and cauliflower. The spring is too hot, too dry, too windy and the sun is too intense. I only plant them for fall...I set seedlings out around the 4th of July. Probably late July would work in ABQ. Hope this helps.

You can grow pretty much anything under the hoops in spring. It does grow faster inside than outside. Sometimes I sow the same thing (like spinach and radishes) under the hoops and in the open ground at the same time. They grow at the different speed and are ready at the different times. In the sunny days the temperatures can easily reach 90 degrees even if the outside temp is in 50s so the care should be taken to monitor the weather every day and to open the tunnels for ventilation or to close them at night. Also watering on the regular basis needs to be done. Tomatoes also can be taken outside and grown under the hoops. In general they like the higher temp and they grow faster. They survive the frost fine, but the leaves touching the plastic may be damaged. Unless the tomatoes are very young the care should be taken to protect the plants from the bright light for the several days after putting them in the tunnel.