Hi! This is my first post in permies, and I'm looking for advice and guidance on building some hoop houses.
I'm planning the hoop houses out now, and I'd like some more advice from anyone with
experience. I've grown in a myriad of structures, and put up a hoop house kit from Bootstrap farmer in our Denver backyard last year (14x20 double layer inflation). I learned a lot from that! I've been growing for sale for the past 3 years (2 for another company), and I've got that part more or less down - always something to learn though!
Background
We are closing on 8 acres of
land outside of Buena Vista, CO (~8,400ft elevation) in a month, where we will be building a house and I will be growing my
native plant nursery! My plan is to grow container plants in unheated hoop houses (maybe a tiny bit of heating in March/April). I'll be doing a lot of perennials, annuals, grasses, and a few shrubs for sale mostly in the front range of Colorado. Lots of plugs for other nurseries the first year too. This results in different growing requirements for a hoop house than vegetable growers, just keep that in mind.
Weather in BV is pretty mild (to me), but has A LOT of UV from the elevation. Nighttime temps in the summer are still really cool 40-50F, but the summer highs of ~70F don't give you a good sense of the heat. In the sun it is HOT, in the shade it's not. Wind seems similar to Denver - I'm mostly worried about gusting. Annual rainfall is 10-11in, and planting season for my customers is probably mid May to early October.
Overall plan
My plan is to buy chain link top rail and bend the hoops myself. Hoops 4' on center, added to 3' tall side wall posts. I'll add a top rail, hip board, base board, and any extra support I need. I'll do single layer plastic secured with wiggle wire and strapping, with openable side walls protected with insect netting. I will likely add a permanent shade cloth before installing the plastic (probably 30% or so), and seasonally add more shade cloth in the summer to the outside. I'm leaning towards scissor doors for the end walls.
Lot of questions I need advice on!
Hoop bender
https://www.buildmyowngreenhouse.com/catalog/product/hoop-bending-tools/c-series-high-tunnel-benders/c-8-through-24-greenhouse-hoop-house-hoop-bender/
I'm planning to buy a C series from Build Your Own
Greenhouse, with the leg stand. I think this is a great option for me - I'll be putting up one or two tunnels a year as I grow, and will appreciate the extra ease of the C series without needing the professional series. I might
sell hoops locally as well. Any other recommendations or reviews for the company? I've got a Johnny's low tunnel bender that I've been using for my own low tunnels and to sell to others.
Width of houses? Wind?
I'm going back and forth on what width hoop bender to buy. My first instinct is the 20ft width since it takes 3 chain link top rails and seems like a great width. My only hesitation is that it is 9.5ft tall, and I am planning on setting these hoops into 3ft tall wall posts to make the sides of the houses more accessible. So it would be ~12.5ft tall - is that good? The land we're buying is dead flat, and exposed - no
trees. I'm a little worried about wind, and I know the taller the house the more wind load is on the plastic.
Thoughts??
Length of houses?
We have so much open land I can kind of make them any length. Do you all have a rule of thumb for how long is too long? I'll be tramping up and down these tunnels and know there's a limit for how long you really want them... And the longer they are the more wind load... And it's probably harder to find plastic for over a certain length... This might get answered when I'm laying them out when we're on the land, but interested to hear from others. I think the longest structure I've grown in is ~100ft and that would have been an annoying length except we had a door in the middle as well as the ends.
End walls - scissor doors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FChxgddbmc
https://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/methods-tools-supplies/quickhoops-scissor-doors-installation-guide.html
IMO the end wall was the most annoying part of putting up our current hoop house (end wall with people door, fan vent on other end). I'm considering scissors doors on both ends instead but don't have any experience with them. They seems pretty easy, and I think I might put a support pole from the top of the hoop down so the end wall is a little more supported. I would like to also add insect netting to the doors and remove the plastic completely in the summer. The ventilation seems really attractive to me.
Side walls
I think it will
be nice to have roll up or ventable side walls for the summer. Roll up seems a lot more expensive, and once they're up I'd probably just leave them rather than venting and closing for a month. Is there a reason to do roll up over the kind you just pull up between the strapping and hoop? How would you do insect netting with ventable sides - or do you need roll up for that? Do I even need this because of the ventilation the scissor doors provide? Or is there a certain length of house where you really do need the ventable sides?
Automated watering
I haven't set up or used an automated watering system but I know I will need to move away from hand watering as I get bigger. Send me any resources you've got! We will be drilling a well and I will likely be also buying in
water delivery depending on if I can legally use our well water for the nursery. Over time I will be adding rain catchment (unlimited quantity we can store if we have a well).
I know that is a lot... I'll be posting back in here as I go as well so this will be a
project update as well. Thanks for any help!
-Alex
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