Another Nifty Hoop House / Greenhouse Idea

The photos aren't coming out very large so here's the link: HOOP/GREENHOUSE

That is a real good looking design. Thanks for sharing sfg4uKim.

They have just started flooding the market with them here in the UK as well . theylook very useful indeed especially if you get the poly sheet cover and the netting cover at the initial purchase .

I like the decent height so you can grow peas without fear of the birds young getting a feast at your expense .

Ya know.... I really really do like this idea and it is giving me food for thought by taking it several steps forward. hmmmmm....

Thanks for the post!

I saw something like this top a while back. But it flipped up from the long side. I wonder.....I think the short side would make it so you could reach all squares easier.

Maybe with cattle panel instead of hoop...

Here is the site that built the hoop house.

I was wondering if this is even possible - to convert my SFG beds (4X4's) into greenhouses for the winter. I'm in zone 6a, and it gets downright COLD here, but I know people do garden through the winter in greenhouses. Just not sure if I can simulate something similar.

Any ideas? Or point me at where to start? I was thinking a hoop house kind of add on would possibly work...

Thanks all!

From what I've read, a hoop house generally isn't great for overwintering, unless one is growing cold-hardy plants in it.

In my own limited experience, garlic, onions, and beets did well, as did the Asian greens. Lettuce, spinach, and carrots grew very slowly, if at all.

If you plan to overwinter things like tomatoes, I believe you'll need a much more expensive, technical greenhouse.

OH! I just made a post about doing this.

I don't understand some fundamentals though - I'm in zone 6a...

Adding something like this to my existing SFG beds doesn't look like too big of a project - at least pipe and plastic wise. But how warm does it stay in there? WOULD I need to heat it? Or would it just protect against snow/frost/freezing and still be cold in there?

Would I just be able to grow cold weather type plants or would I really be able to get a tomato going?

I'd have to manually water. No way I'm going to install a water system. Which is fine.

I think of a hoop to extend a growing season, offering a few weeks of protection. I think of a greenhouse as a heated environment that has an artificial growing season, which in the north includes artificial heating and lights.

I was confused for a long time (and maybe I still am) about the term 'winter gardening'. There's just not many plants that actively grow in winter due to low temperatures and reduced daylight hours. In my climate, regardless of the thermal qualities of the greenhouse, I would still have to provide supplemental heat and artificial light in order for plants to 'grow', and the power bill would increase accordingly. I've taken the approach in my own garden that 'winter gardening', to me, means protecting mature plants (mainly cool crops) that go dormant in the fall due to low temps and low light, so that they are available throughout winter for harvest, or, so they will start growing again in spring. Then, my greenhouse provides a little extra warmth in late winter so I can get an earlier start on spring planting.

Last year I built a 10x20 structure covered with 6 mil plastic, and I call it my greenhouse. Several people who have seen it say it's a big hoop house. Whatever!

A few years ago I started making heated hoop houses on SFG boxes. You can read about them here https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t6953-heated-hoop-houses I am able to direct seed cool crops in them in February.

An unheated greenhouse or hoop house environment in winter time is somewhat similar to the inside of a car. If the sun isn't shining, it's just as cold inside as outside. If the sun is shining on a very cold day, the inside warms up nicely, but cools off quickly when the sun disappears.

This is just an overview, and I'm intentionally not mentioning techniques to extend protection to lower and lower temps.

Exactly Boffer! An unheated greenhouse enables you to HARVEST through most of the winter. You have to figure in the time for planting backwards giving them enough time to mature.

Hi Nonna,

When I click on your link, I'm getting 'page not found'.

Try this link Boffer

http://www.grit.com/garden/do-it-yourself/pvc-hoop-house-zm0z13jazgou.aspx#axzz2X9PEJxWV

Because of limits to length of a web address, there is probably an unintentional space after "house-"  Sorry, I'm not the best at posting web addresses.   Nonna

Thanks, that one's working.

Someday I am going to build something like this - a hinged hoop house.  I like the way he attached the hoops to the frame but it is probably beyond my abilities.  If you skip to the 5 minute point you can see how he makes the thingies that the hoop attaches to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3qoVN-XnIM

Here is another one.  I like the double layers of plastic on this one and also the way he attached the hoops to the frame.  Much easier than the one I have above.  But does not look as strong as the one above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qwyFEmTsmM

I like the one from One Yard Revolution.

@sanderson wrote:I like the one from One Yard Revolution.

Watching the first video made me think "how much do all those tools cost?"
I like the second one better. I like that he acknowledges wind - not sure this would work for me unmodified for that reason. I can totally see my wind catching it, stretching that bungee enough to free the upright 2x4 props and then slamming the top down. 
New vocabulary word for me from second video: purlin