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Mount Prospect,illinois

Question from a newbie,
Obviously it's too late this year to use a hoop house, but i was wondering how long it is best to use a hoop house, and how well does light penetrate any poly you may be using. At first i thought people simply removed the poly every day but that seems like alot of work. Do you guys just allow for ventilation if you get a few warm days prior to fully removing the hoops? any info would be appreciated. Learning as i go in the midwest.

6/5/2006 8:27:29 PM

Minnesota([email protected])

Good questions.
I'd like to ask one, that you seemed to be hinting at, Dave(I hope you don't mind) This is only the second yr. I've used hoophouses. I have 4 mil clear plastic on them. Are the plants fully hardened to the sun, or do I need to acclimate them to full sun, before taking the hoophouses off permenantly(ex. take the hoophouses off the plants progressively more each day for a week or so)?
In answer to your questions Dave:
I leave my hoophouses on until the plants outgrow them, which is soon(my hoophouses are about 4'X 5'). I open the ends, or one end, on hot days, to prevent cooking the plants(very important). Some people have automatic venting systems. I cover them back up in the evening, usually. I think they are a great way to get your plants off to a quick start.
One thing I'd advise, is to set up the hoop houses about a week or so, before planting your A.G. plants. It will help heat the soil up some. Also, if you get heavy rains before planting out, you can still plant in the hoophouses, and won't have to delay planting. Last year I had to delay planting about 5 days, due to too wet of soil/rainy weather.

6/5/2006 8:53:56 PM

Doug with 4 mil clear I don't see any need to harden them off, I didn't exactly but I did open the houses up whenever we had sun at least for a few hours. I used 6 mil and I forget what the transmission is for standard construction grade plastic, less than 60% and for sure less than what you used.

Dave I opened the ends as much as needed to maintain 85 degrees inside depending on the outside temp and the amount of sun.

I left the hoops up and flipped the plastic side to side for wind protection untill this week when I had the vines anchored and they were filling the hoop. Mine were 5' X 10', 2 plants back to back 3'+ spacing between.

6/5/2006 9:06:15 PM

Santa Rosa, CA.

If you want to see some nice hoophouses, check out Vineman's diary. His plants are twice the size of mine and we started them the same day. Big hoophouses get your plants big FAST!!

6/6/2006 12:48:22 AM

Midwest

Dave:
This is my first year using a hoop house. I went with 1mil plastic which seems flimsy but stood up to the 15-20mph winds that we mostly get. I have many holes in the plastic. Mostly due to our collie who doesn't know what a door is yet:) I'm monitoring the weather until the temps are over 80 consistently. Over the past week, when it's between 70-75, it's 85-87 inside. But, with the high 70's I open it up. It isn't as bright inside even with 1mil plastic. But, the plants are doing well and I think it offers several benefits like wind protection, storm protection, bug suppression, etc. I regret not putting it up earlier. I think I had mine up May 21st. Next year mine should be up before May. Best wishes!

6/6/2006 12:59:24 AM

Coventry R.I.

hi dave, i,m frank4 a rookie to .i made my hoop house with 2x4,s. its 6x10 fit 2 plants back to back, i drilled holes,then used 1/2 electrical pvc 10 ft works great, no problem with wind, i used 6 mil plastic. the 2x4 gives it weight frank 4

6/6/2006 7:09:02 AM

Mount Prospect,illinois

Thanks guys, you have answered my question. Now i have one more. At what outside air temps do you open up the hoops to avoid "cooking" the plants.

6/6/2006 10:01:04 AM

Washington

Hi, this is Sherry LaRue. We use hoop houses, both large and small. Our largest are 30x 100. We vent them daily by opening the top of the doors. The hotter the day is supposed to be the more we open on both ends. We leave them up until the plants have outgrown them then totally remove them. The plants are acclimated. We will be taking ours down this coming weekend.

6/6/2006 10:31:46 AM

Little-TON - Colorado

I have had to remove my plastic on my hoop house as it was 98 degrees at the soil 3 " down. I felt I was going to sterilize the soil at that rate. Even with vents all across the top, 24" across the 20 feet in front, and 8 foot open on the two sides the best I could get was 98 inside the hoophouse. Right now its going to be 93 in Colorado, way too hot for normal. So my 6 mil came down 2 weeks ago. How hot was your outside temp???, Id like to compare. 84 outside was 98 inside for me

6/6/2006 12:36:18 PM

following Da Wiz's lead, I was watering the plants as needed,,slow soaking by hand around the base. it dawned on me that the rest of the hoop was dry as a bone. I started deep soaking in expanding circles dailey. After 2 weeks of this the whole hoop was getting watered when needed. When I took down the first one I did a little poking around and found roots out 4' from the base. Made note for next year on this.
I vented like the LaRues, opening the ends at the top and farther down as needed, the slightest breeze vented them well.
Temps? well I opened them a little whenever it hit 60,,more as the days warmed, always with a thermometer in at least 1 hoop to monitor.

6/6/2006 2:46:22 PM

Deer Park WA

Hi Davep,

We use 6 mill plastic for our hoop houses and open them during the day as Mrs. La Rue stated; as the plants out grow them we cut holes at the bottems to let the secondaries run out. The longer you can keep them inside the hoops the longer you can control the environment. Once their "outdoors" you are relying on mother nature! No need to harden them off they get plenty of that under the hoop houses.

6/7/2006 1:27:25 AM

Mount Prospect,illinois

Thanks again guys/gals. This is great info....for next year...too late for me this year. I will have to go with what i am doing wrong this year. Oh well, its all about learning and having fun.

6/7/2006 7:14:33 AM

Little-TON - Colorado

One thing that made me drop my plastic off soon was Tremors comment about ground gases being released from using cow manure. Who would of thunk about this?? Made very good sense and I spread alot of manure ( on the Patch LB)....It was a good thing I took down the plastic as two days later we had very high winds and Im sure it would of damaged it. Very Very hot here in CO. Cooling down today only will be 88. Grow em BIG

6/7/2006 8:54:59 AM