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  • From: "Shawnee Flowerfarmer" <farmingflowers AT hotmail.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Greenhouse Question
  • Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2007 17:04:52 -0500

I am assuming that the poly sheeting is 100 feet long?  and wide enough to cover your 22 ft hoops?  If this is the case, you don't have much extra at the long ends.  How are you attaching the poly?  Springlock is the usual, tightest-yes, pricey too-way.

I would carefully measure, cut in half.  We usually wrap tennis balls with rope onto the leading long edge of the poly and then get the best pitcher in the group to lob the balls over the hoops. (The guys just LOVE this part of the chore) The catching crew on the other side of the hoophouse then pulls the poly over...gently...and of course, on a PERFECTLY windless morning.  (I have been pulled into the air off my feet trying to hold the poly on a February morning when the wind kicked up to 15mph.)  You might want to use  staples as a temporary holding device.  Then repeat all this fun with the second layer.  The inflation fan should be already be attached to one of the hoops before the first layer goes on....install the flange before pulling the second poly layer.  Then springlock all long edges, pulling the poly as snug as you can; pleat the endcap poly and springlock that last.  Plug in the inflation fan.  Admire your work and marvel at how quickly the poly inflates.  Check for damages in the poly, patch with poly repair tape.  ( Pass out refreshments to the work crew.)  ( A short lesson in how to "walk" the springlock into its channel before installation is a good idea and can save on the taping/repairing later.  Most of the time, the guys don't listen anyway.)

I always send out a call for as many bodies as possible to pull and hold the poly.  If you don't have lots of willing helpers around, place stones or cement blocks around the perimeter before beginning.  Also, remind everyone that walking on the poly is forbidden or you will have a set of big muddy footprints in between the layers forever.  Also/part 2, if you are installing anticondensate poly, be sure to determine which side faces which direction before you pull it or  sigh and redo the entire project.  As a vetern of many greenhouses, I do highly recommend the extra cost of anticondensate poly. 

Or, you could contract this chore out to experts and save yourself  a day of craziness.  I have never had the budget for that......but it would be nice. 

 

Shawnee, baking again under a clear blue sky in the former New Bayou of the Midwest, zone 5


We need to cover a 22' x 48' greenhouse.  It's going to have two layers of poly.  The poly is in a 100' sheet.  Should we cut the poly or fold it in half?

Robin Follette
Seasons Eatings Farm
www.seasonseatingsfarm.com
~Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty.  Francis Moore Lappe
 
 

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