Market Farming

["Michaele Blakely" <mjb AT premier1.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: five springs farm <fsfarm AT mufn.org>
To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2000 6:56 AM
Subject: Re: An idea (was Re: Lesson learned about floating row cover)

At times in my valley we can get gusts up to 50mph even in the summer.
I've had gusts pick up my small hoop coop and carry it over a half acre
away! in mid July!  I came from an area that was fairly wind protected and
just did not realize the potential damage these gusts would have on my means
of crop protection.  I used to have portable frames that I would move from
bed to bed with either plastic or row cover of some sort draped over the
hoops. For the times it was windy (a few weeks in the winter) I used the
same method as Jim and Jo. Most of the time a few rocks or soil positioned
in strategic places was all that was needed to keep everything secure.  New
farm and it didn't take me long to see that this method wouldn't work. I
didn't have very good wind blocks.  I went to row covers kept as low to the
ground as possible, anchored securely with rock or wet soil. This worked
well for most crops.  I still needed something for my tomatoes so I
envisioned a hoop house that would be approximatley 20'x150'.  I wanted to
grow in the winter and put tomatoes in  it in the summer.  The following
fall we built it; the pipe slipped over the re-bar that was sunk at least
two feet into the ground.  The plastic was taut over the pipes and cording
was thrown over each side of the pipe  and anchored to another rebar pipe
sunk into the ground.  The plastic was approximately 2 feet longer on each
side of the structure and we buried it.  It was a pretty tight fit.  We
didn't put up a purloin support on the top of the hoop, we ran out of room
before it became dark, so stopped with the idea that we would finish it the
next day from the inside.  It was early November, the worst we feared was a
heavy rainstorm.  We woke up that morning to 12" of wet heavy, snow.  Our
hoop house had collapsed. Although this snow crashed in a lot of roofs and
steel arched greenhouses, it didn't make me feel any better.  When the snow
cleared, we started again, replacing re-bar that had been bent at a 45
degree angle, to say nothing of the pvc pipe twisted and bent into various
angles.  We got it back up, purloins up and it snowed again!  This time we
were able to keep the snow from accumulating too much but the snow stretched
the plastic and left enough of an entry for the winds that reached up to 75
mph that night to balloon the structure and it was ripped to shreds!  I
really wanted this thing to work.  I had heard of a man that had pressurized
air keeping his greenhouse up.  So I did that.  We shortened the structure
to 75'  from the salvaged plastic, dug a trench 2' deep around the entire
thing and buried the plastic.  We sewed a door into one end (using a
sleeping bag zipper) purchased a heavy duty fan to bring air into the house,
wired electricity out to it  and voila!  It was up for a week.  I gave up.
The following summer the hoop house went up again. It had purloins attached
on top.  I decided to try to use the pipe to secure the plastic as Jim and
Jo have described.  I didn't have any the right size to go over the pvc pipe
that I had used so I purchased some flexible hosing one size larger to go
over the pipe.  A minor wind storm and the plastic was on the ground.  I
decided pvc pipe cut in half on a chop saw and sanded seemed the best bet as
this would be a very tight fit.  That had worked well for me before.  Not a
chance.  So purloins went up on the sides.  The plastic attached with lath
to it and we used it for 4 years.
Lessons learned:  Don't fight nature:  the place chosen for the hoophouse
was the worst possible choice for wind (although it was the only place) and
downright impossible for winter growing.
the principles for covering crops changes dramatically with the size of the
structure although lower and smaller houses wouldn't have been damaged as
much, in this location we would have still had problems.
I'm going to try one row only this year of putting wire hoops fairly close
together and using the black flexi pipe slit in half over the entire hoop to
secure the cover.  Maybe that will work for me.  I'm putting in another
greenhouse this year that will be for my warm weathered crops.  It will be
as portable as I can make it, but it will be a greenhouse.  I wish I was in
a place I didn't have to.
Michaele
Growing Things
Carnation Wa