pvc length and type on a hoop house

We used 10' gray electrical conduit that we cut the bell end off of, then put 2 conduit clamps on each side of the the outside of the bed. Each end of the pipe simply slips into the clamps. They are tall enough for our broccoli and collards in our 4' x 16' beds. They are very easy to remove, though we've kept them in place all winter.



Judi

beautiful.

I just bend over the pieces as the size you buy them. Crossing them like this makes it an extremely strong structure.

very nice. Is the pvc attached to a 1 x 2 and set on the box?

2x4's then set on the box. I ran a couple screws through the pipes in to the 2x4's. Up top where they cross I put a couple of ring tighteners interlocked to anchor the two together. Then rapped that all in tape to ensure the plastic wouldn't get scraped on them.

This only takes about 15 min's to put together and you have a mini mobile greenhouse for less than 20 bucks.

thank you.

Austin

ok, I know it been a while. I've been swamp. I took several ideas from turan, gloriag ,johnsonjlj and colorado state university for what I'm doing now and what I will be doing in the future. I thought I show some of my failures, some of my partial success. Partial, because I have not arrive for what I need to do to have the best protection for the winter. I live in texas, and we will be coming out of our winter soon. Nevertheless , I plan to extend some new ideas for the spring and summer for insect and shade protection, which is our real problem.
I plan on going to metal hoop and worm towers like gloriag. I like her ideas best. I think someone may benifit from my experiments and may improve on it. This is the place for sharing ideas and it's wonderful. I will put my pictures up in sections.

Austin-has55

this is my SQF. so you have a idea of the layout. I waited too long and got bit by the cold before I had covered the plants, but many made it through, but it's a setback.
1st I started with experimenting with a cover that would lift up and down, so I would have easy excess to the plants.

next I came up with a square and an A frame hoop house. this work initially, easy to open and close. But when the first freeze came, it cause the hoop house PVC tubing to warp and come out of the snap clamps that I use to make the hinges. I had put the clamps on top of the 4 x 4 wood borders. I put these ideas together in december, before posting about PVC length. I had already got caught by a late november freeze and my plants had been set back.
I got this idea from http://www.pvcplans.com/
So back to the drawing board. see below my square and cold frame hoop house.

I now have posted and look at some of the members ideas. I decided to use the colorado state university idea, without a iron mesh to pull the plastic down from the side if I needed to vent the hoop house or have excess to the food. I also made One low bed using turan's poly pipe idea mixed with the state university idea. The clamps work , but i needed to take them off to vent the heat from the bed or reattached to close. This was not as easy as I hoped. I cut the black poly pipe lengthwise using several type of width when cut. I was trying to find the right width for snapping the clamp down easily like the snap clamps. The snap clamps did well on PVC, but did not stay well on poly pipe , so I used the polypipe snap clamp and put the plastic PVC snap over it to more security/holding strength.
Now this set up has work, but I had to give up about a hand with of my inner bed to make a frame that is glue for inserting the pvc pipe tubing into the corner frame. These pipe were not glued. I made crossbow to reinforced the sides , just in case it snow, rain. or hailed, which it did. I took a PVC snap clamp and glued it to a PVC t adapter and then put a straight pipe between each side to connect the t's. All pipes were 1/2 inch , which made them flexible for bending.
1st the low bed made with polypipe.

now the high hoop house that I'm using now. I like gloriaG idea, but it not the time for me to break down these hoop houses. I put too much work in them. I will be using metal hoop pole outside of the bed so I can use all my space. I will eliminate the inner frame idea for my future project.







Thanks for allowing me to share.

Austin-has55

I love all the pictures of your various cover set ups.

Thanks Turan. I forgot to add that I use a wireless weather thermometer so I see how fast the bed heat up or cool down from inside the house. That way I can decide to open or cose up the hoop house. Last night it got down to 34 grees, so I closed them up. It took about 7-10 mins .




I hope my next new idea work. I made a small model to practice on. I'm using Turan polypipes idea for the hoops because it bends easily for the model. but I will be using metal emt in the final version.








Austin

My kids got me a couple of the automatic foundation vents for my cold frames this year. Have you looked into those and thought about if they can help with your opening and closing? I figure they will help fine tune with spring fickleness and mornings but won't totally replace me opening and closing.
I would love a good thermometer like that, my birthday is coming up, maybe another hint is in order (though I just bought a cello E string on that premise )

Just tossing out a random idea... the wooden base your small model has - could you put that wood frame on another wood frame and hinge it? Kind of like a door except sitting on the door frame instead of inside the door frame. Not sure the cost but you could even play with an elbow type hinge to help "support" it in the open position. It may not be realistic for a large size, not sure.