7 Easy to Build DIY Hoop House: Plans and Instructions

Table Of Content

• EXPAND PRODUCTION WITHOUT SHRINKING YOUR WALLET
• Making the base wall for DIY hoop house
• The reality of legal weed in California: Huge illegal grows, violence, worker exploitation and deaths
• Unlock the Full Potential of Your Garden with Hoop House USA
• Engineer Stamped Drawings for High Tunnel or Greenhouse Permitting

You are building your case when you walk into a building department, and having answers in advance will help build your case faster. For that reason, we recommend approaching your municipality before proceeding with a structure purchase or build. If your project can get by without engineer stamped drawings it could save you a TON of headache and money. Whether the local municipality can do this legally is out of our expertise. However, if you want to build your structure without any issues it is best to try and work with the local municipality even if your state government is saying something different. Wiggle wire and channel lock some together in this high quality kit, built to last as it’s rust and maintenance free.

EXPAND PRODUCTION WITHOUT SHRINKING YOUR WALLET

The difference in growth vs outside the hoop house is amazing. In 2020 we saw the need for a streamlined approach to hoop house structures. As disrupters of the industry we pride ourselves with providing customer friendly prices with commercial grade material.

Grand Traverse County farm hopes to extend growing season with new hoop house addition - UpNorthLive.com

Grand Traverse County farm hopes to extend growing season with new hoop house addition.

Posted: Mon, 31 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Making the base wall for DIY hoop house

Double-layered hoop houses are more expensive, but they offer better protection against pests and weather. While farmers do control hoop house water application—most often through a drip irrigation system—moisture must still be carefully monitored. In winter, water should be applied sparingly to avoid freezing plants, and row covers should be kept off leaves to minimize condensation, which can freeze. Throughout the year, proper ventilation helps control diseases that thrive in moist, warm, still environments.

The reality of legal weed in California: Huge illegal grows, violence, worker exploitation and deaths

So if the hoop house was 10′ X 24′ you would need to order 24′ + 2 feet for the length. I made them big enough to staple to the door frame and have about a foot hanging over the hoop on each side. Carefully measure and cut this greenhouse plastic obtained for your labor. If you are fortunate, you might find a commercial greenhouse that is replacing his greenhouse plastic after a couple of years usage. The door latches by a simple mechanism that has latched doors of sheds and outbuildings for over 100 years. The condensation traps connected to the hoops look like this picture.

They provide protection from harsh weather conditions and allow plants to grow without direct sunlight. Basically, it’s a structure that uses the rays of the sun to warm the plants inside it. Unlike a greenhouse, its warming action is completely passive and doesn’t rely on heaters or fans. This means it’s a lot cheaper to operate (once you’ve built it, you’re done spending money on it) but it also means it’s more labor-intensive.

I used dry wall screws because they are very strong, are low cost and their coarse threads make for a strong hold. A single 1 1/4″ dry wall screw was used to connect the condensation trap to the bottom of the hoop. To hold the greenhouse plastic to the hoop house we purchased UV treated PVC clips (these were white). In our part of the country where the time for gardening is short, that means extending your growing season. You can buy large hoop house kits online from farm supply retailers, or smaller backyard kits from garden supply retailers. If you’re DIYing a small hoop house, you can pick up everything you need at a local hardware store.

Lots of indoor farms are shutting down as their businesses struggle. So why are more being built? - The Associated Press

Lots of indoor farms are shutting down as their businesses struggle. So why are more being built?.

Posted: Sun, 17 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Unlock the Full Potential of Your Garden with Hoop House USA

Some of the material we used in our hoop house was left-over from other projects. Some days the temperature can reach 110 – 120 degrees inside the hoop house. To roll up more than one section on a side you will have to remove a snap clamp or two on the front and back releasing the greenhouse plastic on the sides.

The frame is covered by greenhouse plastic stapled to the wood. You can glue the pieces together or drill a small hole and join them with a 3/4″ dry wall screw which allows later disassembly if desired. We did not have the nearly $3,000.00 needed to build a regular greenhouse the size we wanted, so we opted for a hoop house which cost much less. The hoop house we designed and constructed is simple to make, has withstood winds in excess of 75 mph and will not break the bank to build. There is no difference between a hoop house and a high tunnel. Agricultural engineers use the term high tunnel because it’s literally a high tunnel, a tunnel tall enough to stand under.

Repeat this process on the last 40-feet PCV pipe and the other edge of the plastic sheet. You can now start laying out the plastic on top of the hoop house skeleton. Plants that grow well on the outer raised beds of the hoop house include; Peppers, Kale, Swiss Chard, Eggplants and some Bush Beans as well as Green Onions. We have 188 square feet of raised beds plus space for 2 halves of a 55 gallon drum and 2 other large planters in this hoop house.

To put it on, if there is a little wind blowing, I start at the end of the hoop house where the wind holds the plastic against either the front or back of the framework. Another option if you made the hoop house 12 feet wide would be to make the center raised bed 4 feet wide. Light powdery snow will slide off but if there was to be a heavy wet snow you can expect to see the hoops buckle under the load and the greenhouse plastic would probably tear. For the length of greenhouse plastic to purchase you need the length of the hoop house plus 2 feet. And attached to the inner side of the boards used to hold the dirt in the hoop house raised beds.

The NRCS cost-sharing program has required farmers to purchase a manufactured kit, but you can also find build-your-own plans. Secondhand hoop houses may be available, but, Pierce warns, they can be more work than the savings are worth. When deciding on size, plan enough space for both farmers and plants to coexist comfortably. The hoop house, also called a high tunnel, has become over the last decade a valuable tool for organic farmers across the United States. Constructed from a tubular steel frame covered in heavy-duty plastic, it’s a type of passive solar greenhouse in which crops grow directly in the soil but are sheltered by the structure.

Plants that do not require trellising, staking, or regular pruning outdoors often benefit from those tactics inside a hoop house. In colder zones like Vermont, greens need to be planted by late August or September to reach maturity for a November harvest, Pierce warns. The plants then go dormant under row covers until increasing warmth and light perk them up again in February. Early-spring snow can be a foot deep in northern Vermont, but in the hoop houses at Bread & Butter Farm, kale and spinach plants are tucked under an extra “blanket” of row cover. Further west and 7,000 feet up into the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, hoop houses at Indian Ridge Farm protect salad greens and provide shelter for the overwintering laying flock. Use 2/6 or 3/6 wooden frames to cover the outer edge of the greenhouse.

Then I go to the front of the hoop house and stretch the greenhouse plastic toward the front. When I put the greenhouse plastic on the hoop house I get it as straight as possible. The greenhouse plastic is attached to the front hoop and back hoop with the 4″ UV treated white PVC clips mentioned at the beginning of this article. The door is covered with greenhouse plastic that is stapled to the wood.

You can bend the poles by using any pole bender or any other bending technique (check the poles, pole bender, and other materials required for this DIY Hoophouse). Note, The distance between the hoops is exactly 4 feet for our hoop house. By 2020, CannaVision could find cannabis farms missed by the state contractor, and canvass entire counties overnight. The program generated keen interest across state agencies from staff frustrated by years of hunting for cannabis crops degrading streams and endangering wildlife. In every place The Times looked, illicit cannabis production had increased since California reduced criminal penalties for unlicensed operations as part of legalization. There was little variation between areas that licensed cannabis and those that banned it.

This greenhouse is 11 feet wide, 15 feet long, and about seven and a half feet tall. This same concept can be used to make a greenhouse as long or short as you want, but with this design, the width will need to be between feet. But carefully and easily I am able to pull the plastic over the tops of the hoops and secure the original end on that end hoop with snap clamps.