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market-farming - Hoophouses VS Snow

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  • From: Lucy Owsley <goodows AT infinet.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Hoophouses VS Snow
  • Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 06:34:39 -0500




What do you do about your hoophouses/polytunnels during snow season? We
have 2 hoophouses covered with greenhouse plastic sheeting. One has a
wooden frame which the plastic is nailed to and can be drug around the
farm and the other one is a series of metal conduit hoops that we put
over rebar shoved deep into the soil and than greenhouse plastic is put
over that and either the edges are dug into the soil or we get about a
half ton of largish rocks weighing down the perimeter. We figure the
simpler house will come down in the first snow (it comes down in wind
storms easily but can be put back together in 45 minutes or less and so
far it has gotten virtually no damage) or we will take it down before
that happens. The other house, which has the plastic nailed to it,
has been up for 2 years now has not had any snow on it other than once
right after it was completed. At that time my husband and I took turns
going out with a broom and standing inside the house hit the sides (not
so's you'd rip the plastic) to knock the snow off. We did this for the 5
hours it snowed big wet sticky flakes.

A friend had two similar houses that got crushed under 6 to 8 inches of
heavy wet snow (he had just had heart surgery so he could not get to the
houses).

Perhaps I won't have to worry if we get little snow around here (SW
OHIO) but still I would like to know the snow strategy of others out
there attempting to use polytunnels/hoophouses over winter.


Lucy Goodman-Owsley
Boulder Belt Organics
New Paris, OH
http://www.angelfire.com/oh2/boulderbeltcsa

Looking for a CSA, Farmer's market or other venue for fresh local food?
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