Hoop Greenhouses - Maybe went a little crazy <G>

How much did you pay for the hoophouses? Thanks, Mike

I don't know what fruits are/aren't hardy there, but I would definately experiment with sensitive types such as kiwis, not-so-hardy grape varieties, figs, peaches etc etc. Many of them can't handle the wet/cold wind factor, under cover and out of the wind should be enough. That's what I'd do.

crafty2002 has greenhouses for sale on the barter board. Look pretty good.
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/sho...=165841&page=2

SBJ

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giffy did you make yours with rebar? 1" or smaller. if one inch how hard was it to bend?

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www.MontanaSticksAndStones.com at Goshen Farm

Mike, I hope you know you teed me off. I'm busting my butt to build a cheap greenhouse and you just go to an auction, lol.
I have my 10 x 10 waiting on the plastic and starting on a 16 x 24 and look at what you got. You have more green house space than I wanted to plant for gardens, and I thought I was going overboard.
I hope you get them all set up and running fine.

And thanks SBJ, but the pictures I saw were the same ones but really smaller and I couldn't see how bad the thing looked. My little sis took them for me and I didn't know when. Everything is out of whack in the pictures because I didn't even have any screws in it yet.
My little sis and DW is trying to help me behind my back on this and if I had of seen those pictures full size before they were posted, I would have asked sourtherngurl to wait until I had better pictures because they don't do it credit. Looking at the pictures posted above, I wouldn't think about buying one of them.
I never stopped to look at them good until tonight.
I get the UV plastic by Wenesday. Tommarrow if I am luckey. I have finished mine and pictures are all taken except the plastic installation.
Pictures will be on here correctly Wenesday night or I just give up. If that happens, it will be the first time ever.
But thanks SBJ for the complement, even if I don't think those pictures deserve it.
I wish I had of looked at them better because they were fittings I hadn't even fifnised welding and they look like crap in the pictures.
I think I sorta got shot down right there but give me two more days.
I'm going to go do some welding.
God Bless
Dennis

No, they are galvanized pipe.......just like the top rail of a chain link fence. Many of the greenhouse dealers carry the hoops in any size you want. Mine was 14' wide, 7' tall in the center. Fairly inexpensive, shipping is what gets you.

I ordered one extra hoping to make up a jig to bend my own, haven't tried it yet though.

Little better photo:


giffy

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GiffsFarm

Giffy I like the pictures of the birds. For someone that wants a hoop house that looks like a good dael also, but 3/4" emt conduit is strong enough to get the job done, and less than 4 bucks for a 10 foot length. I know it probably needs to be 20 feet long but you can cut a 6" nipple out of 1" conduit for a coupling in the middle and put two screws in both sides and it would work nicely.
As far as bending the 3/4", when I was an electrical helper, the boss was raiseing al hell one morning because the journeymen was bending close 90's when they should have been a wide sweep 90. It was running on a cable tray and he was right. It looked like snit. If I remember correctly, the tray had a 38" radius and they were dropping the pipe down that was following it with a 9" ridius.
I told Bob I could bend it on a long raius and he said, "you told me you hadn't ever bent any pipe before".
I haven't, but I can do it. After some heated discustion he told me what the hell, go ahead and give it a try if I wanted. Long storey short, I bent the long sweeps for the entire job, with a $4 an hour raise. From then on, I could hire on as an electrician at top pay, lol.
I just figured the inches in the circumfrence of the full circle, devided it by 4, and then I forget how I did it. I think I devided it into 30 parts and marked each place on the conduit and each place just got a little nudge of a bend with the hand bender and walla, a perfect long sweep 90. And believe it or leave it alone, I got it right on the first piece of pipe.
The journyneymen that had been electricians for years had a pile of twisted pipe trying to get it right and they all gave up.
But you can walk a hand bender down a length of pipe in two minutes flat and get the big hoops like you have and as I said, 3/4" is plenty strong enough.
Before the FAA started the Sport Pilot Bull S@##, I started building an ultra light airplane that would have looked like a J-3 Piper Cub, except I was making mine side by side seating instead of tatum, and I still have the fuselage. I will ad a picture of it along with the green house pictures when I post them at the end of the week.
But conduit is galvanized heavyer than fence pipe is. It doesn't look or seem like it, but you can tell when you try welding it. Dangdest "GREEN POISON" smoke you ever seen. I have learned over the years how to weld it and not get sick, but if anyone out there wants to weld any, do so with caution. I don't think you can weld it long enough to kill you, but if you get a nose full fast enough it will put you in the bed for a few days. And if you do weld any of it, drink atleast a quart of "WHOLE" milk a day while doing so. Half gallon is better. I have no idea what it is about the milk, but it works.
I have been so sick from welding it I would have as soon died. And that goes especially if it is hot. It's not nearly as bad when it cool, but when it's hot enough to sweat, look out and drink milk and more milk.
Well, that's enough. Time to go weld some conduit.
God bless
Dennis

Dennis, excellent information........I appreciate it. It was a first for me as far as trying a cold frame for use as a pen. What I was worried about is that when I attach the plastic on it would act as a parachute and that is why I went with the 1 3/8 tube. At some point I am going to try exactly what you said in your reply. If I used the 3/4 EMT, would 4' on centers be strong enough in your opinion?

Thanks.......giffy
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GiffsFarm

Excellent, Mike! I've been looking at hoop houses for the new acreage to extend my season enough for late season tomatoes, and would have LOVED to have run across such a deal!

Veggrower -- how much compost and how situated? Do you mean bins of it to let off heat, or a really deep bed of it? I'd be interested in knowing more about your method on this?

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Dennis, to address the question giffy asked (About 4 foot on center) and not to rain on your parade, I would think that with the profile you have, snow load would be an potential issue in areas that get heavy snows. The plastic material would likely sag between the roof poles and the pole at the top of the wall.

In areas without heavy snow loads I think your design would work fine.

As usual, just my 2 cents.

Mike

Watch out for unheated greenhouses in the winter. I once watched a dozen collapse under the snow on a neighboring farm because they stopped using the greenhouses, didn't heat them so the snow didn't melt and slide off and they failed to remove the covering. The result was the snow built up and crushed the metal supports into a twisted mess that was revealed come spring. Very, very sad.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

On my hoophouse (PVC plastic pipe) I went with hoops on 2 foot centers. I think 4 foot is too far apart.

Junkmanme, I have a smaller hoop "house" made from pvc and also have it on 2 foot centers. The steel ones I just bought are 2 hoops welded at the top (center) and bottoms on 40" centers. Between each pair there is a piece of pipe bolted to the top bar with a 40" spacing between the two welded sections. There were the remains of snow (quite a bit) on them the first day I was at the auction.

In looking around at the various hoophouses I could see that a few individual hoops had bent from snow load. I'm guessing it is something of a tradeoff.

I looked at what that 6 mil stuff runs a roll..... I am definately salvaging what I can of the plastic currently on them.

Just a few more thoughts.

Mike

Calculated out that the hoophouses give us 30,000 square feet (or about 2/3 of an acre) under cover if we use them all.

Here are a couple of pictures from the auction:

This is part of the row of hoophouses I purchased (the 108 foot ones)
http://members.aol.com/export4/hoops.jpg

This is the truck I purchased. It's a good truck but I'm thinking it may not be suitable for my farm because of the low ground clearance.

http://members.aol.com/export4/truck.jpg

Mike

I changed the inline images to hyperlinks out of consideration for folks who are on dialup.

Well, the madness continues.

I hired a worker through an agency that tries to help at-risk youth and ex-convicts who are trying to rehabilitate themselves. The guy shows up at the nursery at 7:30 (I thought....hmmm, good start). After 15 minutes he decided it was too much like work (I had him removing u-clamps that were holding the center pipes to the hoop frames). He wants a "real job".

Now I'll grant that it was about 30 degrees with a light snow (but it was supposed to clear up and get a bit warmer). I had plenty of food, hot water for instant coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc. I told him to feel free to take breaks as necessary and warm up in the truck. I provided work gloves.

I'm sorry. It isn't real hard work, just lots of it and a little awkward reaching up to get at the u-clamps.

Anyhoo, I kept at it until 4:30 this afternoon and got a fair amount done. Removed the center pipes from 9 of the hoops and used a pry bar (glad a brought a big one) to pry loose the strapping holding the hoops to the wood base boards on some of the hoop houses.

I'm not sure how I'm going to get everything disassembled and ready to load. I'm going to head back tomorrow and keep plugging away. I'm going to try to get the rest of the pipes removed and at least some of the wooden end frames. Three weeks left and counting.

I did take stop a couple times to watch the eagles flying overhead. They are beautiful birds.....wish they didn't have such a wimpy cry <G>.

Mike

Giffy, I think you may listen to what Mike said. I ma not sure where you live but he has got something here.
Mike, no, you haven't rained on my parade. I am glad you said something about the snow load. You are probably, or more likely gauranteed to be right about the snow load. In the south side of Va. we hardly ever get enough snow to worry about, but anywhere there is a lot of snow, I would say they shouldn't be spread more than 2 1/2 feet on centers for the 3/4" I am using, and maybe 2 feet. The 3/4" conduit is pretty strong, but snow can get real heavy.
The kits I am building I have been setting them for 39.5 inches on center. I call them 10 x 10's but they are actually 118 inches each way so the 10 foot plastic is easier to attach and talk into staying long enough to get the strips screwed down.
As far as the plastic goes, that would be according to what type you were useing I would think.
I have ordered the 6 mill UV. The 8 mil was the same price, but the shipping was way more because the weight passed a certain limit, what ever it was. I started to just get 4 mil but there wasn't enough difference in the price so I ordered the 6 mil.
With what you have, being 40 inches on center and the snow you get up there, you probably need 8 or 10 mil., and that is costly when you add in the shipping. I think I will check out where the people that wants one of mine lives, and maybe add a set of ribs and set them on 30" or so, o.c., for anyone north of me. I might even need to go to 2' for some of them. I hadn't really given the snow load much thought. Actually none at all, but I will from now on.
Thanks for the rain, lol.
I had just thought about the wind. We have more problems with gust up to 30 and 40 MPH than snow.
Well, it is supposed to get down to 20 tonight and I am still short on firewood, because of all I have going on, so I better go split some and get a good load in here for tonight. It's on'y 28 now, so I better get some in here for today, lol.
God Bless
Dennis

Hi Gary;
WOW! You rock! What a great link! I added it to my favorites.
Solar energy is thrilling. I love to see practical ideas and plans for the do-it yourselfer.
Thanks!
Tami

I've read about heating greenhouses with rabbits in cages....or does that only work with glass houses? Would chickens in cages work, too?