The hoops are 1/2 inch PVC. I buy the 10 foot lengths and cut them down to 9 feet to make sure I have enough room for the 108 inch tulle to hang over the side of the bed. They are insert into 1 inch PVC pipes attached to the inside of the bed with EMT one hole strap. The bed is 3 feet wide. Sorry, I don't know how tall they are and I can't measure the height of them now because I do not have any set up yet. I place a panel on each end of the bed and then a big piece from one side of the bed to the other side. So I just have to undo a couple of clips to raise up the side of the tulle to hand pollinate. I use jumbo binder clips purchased at the office supply store to secure the tulle to the PVC. I also use pieces of 1 x 2 or 1 x 1 wood laying on top of the tulle to hold the side panel down. That makes it easy to get into the bed.

I've started my cucumber plants under Agribon for several years, as I also do for young squash plants. Insects (cuke beetles, squash bugs, SVB) would quickly destroy any vine crop seedlings I left unprotected. I had a lot of years that were total losses for squash & cukes, prior to using covers - and only a few minor losses since. When the cukes begin to bloom, I remove the covers & train the vines to a trellis. In my area, where there are wild cucumbers & pickle farms to sustain their population, cucumber beetles will always fly in from the surrounding area. I don't know whether they overwinter where their host plants were the year earlier, since I rotate the location of my vine crops each year (good practice for any crop). I've never had them appear under the covers. It seems that if I cover the vine crops early, and miss the first egg-laying cycle, only a few beetles appear later in the season. These are in far fewer numbers than I would expect otherwise, and the mature plants are healthy enough that they generally do little damage. However, they can still infect wilt-susceptible cucumbers, even mature plants. Growing a disease-resistant variety, or a parthenocarpic variety which can be kept covered, will overcome this. For wilt-susceptible varieties, spreading single plants throughout the garden - rather than together in one place - will increase chances for success. The bees can find them more easily than the beetles. While row covers themselves are fairly inexpensive, that can't be said for the methods offered of holding them down. Ground staples are pretty pricey, especially if you need a lot of them. The same can be said of the clips used to fasten fabric row covers to PVC hoops. I tried making my own ground staples, by cutting single-row strips from 4-foot-wide concrete remesh; it worked well, but they were a pain to remove at year's end. Personally, I would recommend just allowing the fabric to float over the vines. It will be pushed up by the foliage, provided that the cover is allowed enough slack for it to do so. The most economical way to secure a cover is to bury the edges. I spread the cover, use bamboo skewers to hold the edges in place, and cover them with several inches of soil. Water the soil over the edges to bond it to the fabric, and to seal the edges. Be sure to leave enough slack for the plants to grow. If you need access, leave one side unburied, holding it down with something which can be easily removed. I use 10-foot lengths of 1/2" rebar rod, but boards held down by bricks would work as well. Whatever is used to hold down the open end, the edges should be lightly buried after each entry, since the beetles will crawl under any edge left unsealed. Also, round off any sharp edges which might chafe against the fabric as the wind moves it back & forth. Another reason I found that I like using soil... it has no sharp edges. ;-) The buried cover will resist all but the strongest winds, since it will tend to lay flat. Oh, and it will keep out slugs as well, unless they were there before the cover was applied. Maybe a little OT, but one last note, regarding cucumber beetles. My observations seem to indicate that the use of fertilizer on vine crops increases their attractiveness to cucumber beetles. They locate their host plants by scent, so it may be that the accelerated growth caused by fertilization increases the production of the chemicals which attract them. It doesn't seem to matter if the fertilizer is chemical or organic. Attacks by other insects (such as squash bugs on squash) also seem to encourage attack by cucumber beetles. I don't protect all of my squash with row cover, since Tromboncino is naturally resistant to SVB & can fight off squash bugs & cuke beetles on its own when healthy. If I find a swarm of cucumber beetles on a young Tromboncino vine, there is nearly always an adult squash bug somewhere on the plant... so the beetles actually act as my "early warning" for the first squash bugs. I've inspected all plants several times when I first observed this, and only the plants with squash bugs had swarms of beetles attacking them. It allows me to catch the squash bugs early, before they have laid eggs.

I use row covers on my eggplants -- which are a magnet for flea beetles. But remember to take them off before they flower to enable pollination. I shall also use them this year for radishes and brassicas, which also suffer from flea beetles in this corner of Michigan. When you have been organic for some years you will find that insect problems fall away (they don't disappear) because you're not killing beneficials with insecticides. I never have had insect problems with lettuce and peas, but the Mexican bean beetle visits from time to time, and nothing seems to deter the Colorado potato beetle. Over time healthy soil with lots of biological activity will give you stronger plants, which will handle pests better. I also use row covers in the fall to keep lettuce and spinach warm; this way we eat well until mid-December and somtimes later. Good luck! and regards, Peter.

I like Johnny's Seed - Seed Starting Calculator. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/e-PDGSeedStart.aspx??source=HomeSeedCalc0111. I will probably use this calculator this year to determine the planting dates and use Martha Stewart's Seed Starting Worksheet - www.marthastewart.com/seed-worksheet - to keep tract of what I do. I agree with you - I have got to keep better records of what/when I plant and when/what to fertilize. I finally organized an excel worksheet for ordering our vegetable seeds - I think I have that documented for easy seed ordering decisions. Here are a couple of photos of our soil sifter (we have rocky soil in places) - we built it to fit our wheel barrow so it does not move once I place it on the wheel barrow. It works pretty good for sifting soil in a small area. I go down the garden row and throw in surface rocks then dump the rocks in my 4-wheel trailer and dump the wheel barrow of dirt back in the garden. Thought it might also come in handy for sifting soil for the Soil block mixture. FYI RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: karin_mt 4 (My Page) on Thu, Dec 30, 10 at 12:21 I like both of those web resources for seed starting. The Johnny's one is particularly cool. I found that the hardest thing was forecasting the frost-free date inside my greenhouse so I could predict when to start plants that are destined to stay inside. And yes, a customized Excel sheet is a great way to go! I have an Excel database that starts from the very beginning of our gardens, so I have a pretty good history of what I've planted each year, where it's from and how it did. There are a few gaps though, notably which type of raspberry variety is where. I also have a little bar graph that I use to track the planting dates, exciting weather events, bloom periods and key harvests. Each year I print out the template, then fill in the bars by hand over the relevant dates. This gives a very interesting comparison of your growing climate from year to year. Maybe someday these will be key pieces of climate data? The note-taking is also helpful for reflection - it helps you firm up your thoughts. Now, your soil screener looks like a very nice tool. I like that it fits firmly on the wheel barrow. What do you do with all the rocky stuff that is left over? Maybe you'll have enough for a stone border? Do you have alkaline soil too? Do you find that your soil gets clumpy, even when it's nice soil? That's something I've noticed lately. Even though the soil is beautifully textured (not clay), it forms hard clumps. I am wondering if this is from alkalinity and the particles being inclined to stick together. RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: 7000feet 3 (My Page) on Fri, Dec 31, 10 at 10:40 Your method for keeping notes is helpful! The Salt River runs through our property (a mild to raging stream depending on the runoff and irrigation needs - so I return the rocks to their rightful owner - the river. We have great soil because we are on an ancient river bed but the bad part is the top soil varies from 0-36" depending on the swells. We tried to locate our garden on deep top soil but still had to haul off large rocks in the beginning and now sift the soil as we plant and haul off the small rocks. I haven't tested our PH but is alkaline soil like yours. It does get clumpy but try to keep it moist during germination and use a lot of mulch to keep the walk areas dry/walkable. We add manure every fall before plowing the garden. We purchased sifted top soil for the GH and added a lot of vermiculite, peat moss & compost - not problems with GH soil. Here is a photo of what works well for us to remove rocks from our garden. I purchased this wonderful dumping trailer that hooks on my 4-wheeler. I rake the rocks in a row and use a manure fork to throw them in the trailer - then dump the rocks on the river bed with their cousins. RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: soonergrandmom Z6 Grove (My Page) on Sat, Jan 1, 11 at 16:26 I have used the mini-block maker for years. I use either Jiffy Mix or ProMix with it. With ProMix you may have to throw out a small stick or two, but it holds together fine. I didn't know about the attachment for the medium block maker that makes the hole for the little one to fit into until several years after I bought mine, and I never remember to order it. So I don't use the two blocks together. Some things grow so rapidly that they need to be started in the medium size, but I start all tomato and pepper seeds in the tiny block and pot up to small containers when they get their first real leaves or when they appear to be a good strong seedling. Some things I don't need to plant 20 of, so I write the name on a popsicle stick, lay the popsicle stick between the row of blocks and slide the blocks over in groups of five to a small piece of foil. I crimp the foil up a little to hold the stick so I don't lose the name. I don't make real plant markers until I am sure I have good transplants. I make the permanent marker at the time I put them in their first small container. I am much more likely to plant 5 seeds of 4 varieties of tomato than I am to plant 20 of the same kind, so it works well for me. RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: ngrrsn 7 (My Page) on Tue, Sep 11, 12 at 1:33 Would like to know more about the tunnel construction; why the wire mesh instead of pvc or waterline pipe? What is the mesh sizing? Is this welded wire? What size is the wire (#10,12,14)? How easy is it to form the wire? Is it fairly strong, or does it bend easy? Why the gaps between sections of wire? How is the wire secured to the ground? What is the height of the tunnel at the center line? I am very interested in this. RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: Hudson...WY 3 (My Page) on Fri, Sep 28, 12 at 9:09 The mesh is 47" 12 1/2 gauge Field Fence available at most farm supply stores - a full roll is 330' but most stores have smaller rolls as well. I cut the fence in 6' lengths with small bolt cutter or wire cutter and cut the vertical wire such that there is 6" of wire on both sides of the hopes to push into the ground to anchor the fence. The center height is approx. 24". I plant in wide rows of 30". The mesh size is 6" squares (for easy reach-in, weeding etc.) although the bottom couple of rows are a bit smaller. I gap the fence in the rows approx. 18" to reduce the cost and because the row cover does not sag with the gap. I like the fence because it will last many years and I live in a climate where we have had snow every month of the year and periods of hail or strong wind. The fence does an excellent job holding up the weight of the snow and withstanding the wind/hail etc. It pulls out easy at season end and stores by stacking one inside the other. I have never tried PVC pipe so I am not in a position to compare. I am sure this fence method is more expensive but I like the way it performs. RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: Hudson...WY none3 (My Page) on Fri, Sep 28, 12 at 10:44 This Years Broccoli using the tunnel method - keeps out the insects too. I usually plant veggies in the garden with the row cover the 1st week of may or earlier if I can work the soil. Without the row cover, there is a threat of frost until the middle of June and after the end of August. Well worth the effort! RE: Row Cover Gardening Posted by: ngrrsn 7 (My Page) on Fri, Sep 28, 12 at 17:18 Thanks! That helped a lot! I Appreciate the follow up. 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