low tunnel or hoophouse

[grunt]

I make my own version of low tunnel, or hoophouse. Pics are in the hoophouse album at www.picasaweb.google.com/tvgrunt . The plastic pipe is black irrigation PVC, the plastic is the cheapest available, and now finished its fourth starting season. I put a small electric heater with fan in the end of each one, just as frost protection. If you have the option, place them so they run east west, so you can put solid ends in, to tie the end hoops to. It allows you to get the support/stabilizing lines pulled good and tight. Total cost for a 30' hoophouse like this is under $50. If you don't have bed sides to attach the hoops to, stakes or pipes driven into the ground do just as well. Mine have stood up to 30+ MPH winds with no problems.
Cheers
Dan

[doccat5]

Wow, thanks for sharing the information. I have to show this to DH. I know he'll be interested.

[Alan]

I really like those grow tunnels you have set up, i've been thinking about doing something like that here at some point in time using the low tunnel frames I already have but implementing a raised bed system in which I can incorporate my vermiculture operation to make living compost to feed the plants inside the tunells, time will tell if it gets done, but I'm sure it will. Thanks for the great idea!

-Alan

[ohiorganic]

Good information.

We do the same thing with row covers and a lot less work. What we do is use #9 fence wore, cut 10' lengths. The hoops are placed every 5' or so and pushed 12" into the soil and than row covers are put over top and weighed down with rocks and/or bricks. probably costs around $20 per 4' x 50' bed (and the hoops, rocks and row covers will be reused). We have been known to use plastic in place of the row covers (or in addition to), though generally if we want things under plastic we put them in a hoop house which stays a lot warmer than the low tunnels because of greater area to capture heat.

Still a way neat idea and a lot like the raised beds of a local organic lettuce grower (only he does not have the end walls-or cats, so there you go).

[sammyqc]

That's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for! I just want to try and jump start the season, and not pay too much. Something to heat it up, and keep it warm enough at night.

[sammyqc]

I was looking for plastic to build some of these (hopefully in the next month or so if the snow finally melts) and found some at my local lumber/construction depot! $30 for 100 x 10 feet. Much better than the $300 I was quoted at the farm store! Now for the framing. I was thinking of trying to use some of the wood I have around, rather than pvc. Any obvious disadvantages to that? It would probably end up slightly squarer, but I would try to make a peak so the water still runs off if it rains.
The raised beds are cedar, so I can build right on to them.

[canadamike]

Sammy:

I have a woodshop and thousands of feet of wood at the farm, so I tried free wood, of course ,2 years ago.

DO NOT GO THERE. Discrepencies in the density of each plank used, knots, grain direction all influence the way the wood bend, and no arc is the same exactly, giving you weak zones when its windy, or rainy.

It ends up being a mess. I would get heavy gage wire, like number nine I think . in a roll, or by the foot. Way cheaper on the long run, more precise AND efficient, and efficiency is the SOLE reason to do a tunnel.

I can cross the river to help you set it up if you wish, My hourly rate is published in ''The little book of zeroes ''.

Michel

[sammyqc]

Thanks for the offer Mike. I'm pretty good with a drill and a saw, and I'm starting to think more along the line of a low plastic greenhouse type structure, rather that the row tunnels. If plastic is that cheap, then an easily assembled/dissassembled wood structure might be more what I'm leaning towards. Still gotta think about it, and see what I've got on hand. I'm still wishing we had kept all the windows we had replaced in the house from two years ago. Would've gone a long way toward a cobbled together greenhouse type structure.

[grunt]

Sammy; Something shaped like a hip roofed barn, done in individual stations would do. Space them about 3' apart along the row. If you don't have bed sides to nail to, drive a stake in the ground and screw/nail the stations to that. Put the stations up, run baler twine or similar along the gussets, and you're in business. I'm going to be doing a tryout of using 100W lights and a fan in one of my hoophouses (starting this evening) and see if it will keep it above freezing. The thought is that the lights should produce enough heat to keep frost off, and a house fan will push the air a bit better than the slow gentle fans on the heaters. 30' (the length of my hoophouses) is a little much to ask of such a piddly little fan. I'll post as soon as I know. Right now I have to run to the dollar store and get some cheap extension cords to use with the light fixtures.
Cheers
Dan

[sammyqc]

Careful of those Chinese extension cords, heard they can be dangerous as in overheating, melting, etc. Who knows!
A hip roofed barn, what is that? Like a typical barn? I was thinking something along an A frame wooden frame, all around the bed (it's wood, and raised) with supporting beams along the tip of the roof, if that makes any sense. I wish I could make a drawing of what I'm thinking on the computer. Not that techy.
I guess it would be panels along the side, then panels to the roof, in a triangle, with a support going from the bottom every few feet to the top.
Ah well, I may be getting ahead of myself here. I'll take pictures of whatever I do manage to come up with.