Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Up here in Maine, where we are at USDA Plant Hardiness zone 4, the only way to ensure we get the productive garden crops we want, is to use a simple plastic-covered structure called a hoop house, or high tunnel. I am 6'-2" tall, and can walk upright in ours with ease. We have two, and I can see where we could use more.
The benefits are not just for season-extending, although that is important. Eliot Coleman, also of Maine, reports that using a hoop house gives you the equivalent of 2 USDA zones south (in our case, zone 6), and that if you use a cold frame inside as well, you'll get another 2 USDA zones (for us, zone 8). That's pretty darn good!
But keeping your plants under cover for part or all of the growing season, has other benefits. You will have fewer insect infestations. If your area gets a lot of rain, you can avoid fungal problems by controlling your own watering. And in the summer heat, you can shade your leafy plants, to prevent bolting. You can also grow salads all winter.
Until recently, greenhouses / hoop houses / poly tunnels would cost you in the $$$thousands. Not now. For about $150 you can have a 12' x 20' hoop house. It will be built of cheap materials that will wear out faster, but you can upgrade it as you can afford to. One gardener, in the video below, shows how he fashioned a sturdy structure using cattle panels (fencing) instead of hoops. You can use PVC piping, conduit, even wood. And you don't need advanced building skills to do this. Everything is lightweight, and easy to handle.
Up here in Maine, where we are at USDA Plant Hardiness zone 4, the only way to ensure we get the productive garden crops we want, is to use a simple plastic-covered structure called a hoop house, or high tunnel. I am 6'-2" tall, and can walk upright in ours with ease. We have two, and I can see where we could use more.
The benefits are not just for season-extending, although that is important. Eliot Coleman, also of Maine, reports that using a hoop house gives you the equivalent of 2 USDA zones south (in our case, zone 6), and that if you use a cold frame inside as well, you'll get another 2 USDA zones (for us, zone 8). That's pretty darn good!
But keeping your plants under cover for part or all of the growing season, has other benefits. You will have fewer insect infestations. If your area gets a lot of rain, you can avoid fungal problems by controlling your own watering. And in the summer heat, you can shade your leafy plants, to prevent bolting. You can also grow salads all winter.
Until recently, greenhouses / hoop houses / poly tunnels would cost you in the $$$thousands. Not now. For about $150 you can have a 12' x 20' hoop house. It will be built of cheap materials that will wear out faster, but you can upgrade it as you can afford to. One gardener, in the video below, shows how he fashioned a sturdy structure using cattle panels (fencing) instead of hoops. You can use PVC piping, conduit, even wood. And you don't need advanced building skills to do this. Everything is lightweight, and easy to handle.
I do this with rebar in the ground at every 4 ft around a 12x12 "bed" made with 2x12x12 untreated lumber. I put he rebar into the ground and the pvc on the rebar (rebar is attached to lumber). Several PVC pipes across the width and one across the length. I fill it with horse manure and let it rot for months. After that I cover it with screening material and PVC deer fencing in all seasons but winter - in winter I put nylon. Makes for great and cheap way to grow stuff anywhere, all the time.
We have been using simple structures like that for greens and herbs mostly. We get a lot of sun and no wind so it has been problem-free. A friend of mine in another state with high winds does it but makes it sturdier. Occasionally he wakes up to find it gone, so be aware and build to withstand your local weather conditions.
We are beginning to install more permanent green house structures and grow more from fall to early spring, and less in the summer, maybe even eliminating summer crops altogether. Our heat tolerance is very low, but working in a green house on a cold sunny day is very pleasant.
Our heat tolerance is very low, but working in a green house on a cold sunny day is very pleasant.
My heat tolerance is non-existant! But we have to make the most of the growing season. Our heat-loving crops (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) are in a hoop house all summer, with ends removed for ventilation. I have been out in one of our hoop houses just a couple days ago, to get some baby carrots and beets. The atmosphere in there was awesome! It must have been over 80F! Bring out a chair, and bask in the sun!
We are planning to use hoop houses much like we did on a very small scale with cold frames and hot houses in our intensive garden in Anchorage mainly for season extension or four season gardening for cold tolerant crops like kale and salad greens. We are in a microclimate of zone 6a surrounded by 5b here.
Right now our little greenhouse (commercial, steel framed reinforced plastic 10' by 10' gabled roof affair) is 62 degrees in a 15 mph wind though the outside air temp is in the mid 40s. We need supplemental heat about half of the colder nights out there. We are overwintering tender perennials now but cool season vegetables would be more hardy and would represent a better use of the space.
Eventually we are going to the Sagacious plan of limiting the high heat gardening to winter squash, tomatoes and peppers by installing mostly permanent type structures one of which will be a pit greenhouse built into our southern slope for overwintering. Any experience with those here? I've been doing some reading and it's all over the map. Few actual examples, lots of ideas.
We have been using simple structures like that for greens and herbs mostly. We get a lot of sun and no wind so it has been problem-free. A friend of mine in another state with high winds does it but makes it sturdier. Occasionally he wakes up to find it gone, so be aware and build to withstand your local weather conditions.
We are beginning to install more permanent green house structures and grow more from fall to early spring, and less in the summer, maybe even eliminating summer crops altogether. Our heat tolerance is very low, but working in a green house on a cold sunny day is very pleasant.
We occasionally get high winds - that's why I use window screen material and I connect it to the PVC with zip-ties. The winds can rip out the screen but the structure stays intact. The worst we had was a few places where the screen separated from the zip ties but we never even lost the screen.
My heat tolerance is non-existant! But we have to make the most of the growing season. Our heat-loving crops (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants) are in a hoop house all summer, with ends removed for ventilation. I have been out in one of our hoop houses just a couple days ago, to get some baby carrots and beets. The atmosphere in there was awesome! It must have been over 80F! Bring out a chair, and bask in the sun!
I'm fantasizing about eliminating all summer crops. I can dream, can't I? I doubt we could produce as many tomatoes in a green house as we do now.
We have to remove the film from the hoop houses entirely during the summer. We found that it degrades too quickly here by leaving it up. We can stretch it to 4 years, but only get 2-3 years otherwise. This is another reason we are looking into permanent or longer-term solutions.
I'm fantasizing about eliminating all summer crops. I can dream, can't I? I doubt we could produce as many tomatoes in a green house as we do now.
We have to remove the film from the hoop houses entirely during the summer. We found that it degrades too quickly here by leaving it up. We can stretch it to 4 years, but only get 2-3 years otherwise. This is another reason we are looking into permanent or longer-term solutions.
We don't buy the high-priced 4 year "greenhouse " type sheet plastic. The winds up here would shred it in no time. When I go to HD I usually pick up a couple extra rolls of their $19.95 stuff. I've gotten 2 years out of that stuff so far, and it works great for other things, too - paint drop cloths, vapor barriers, whatever. I can't justify the cost of the 4 year product. If the sun beats the HD plastic to death, I don't sweat it. Plenty more cheap stuff in the pole barn!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
