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Diy steel hoop house.

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
Great thread! Great info!

I'm putting up a 20x100 greenhouse. I think a pellet stove might be best to heat it like you have talked about Crushnyuba

These instructions are similar to bootstrapfarmer

Bootstrap farmer sells the lost creek benders. Lost creek made the first jigs for resale. Kind of pionered the top rail thing. They are this old couple from Texas. They have instructions, benders, hardware for sale on their websites. U can always call loy if u need help. He's super nice. I learned alot from them. I have been meaning to share automation stuff with them for a while.

20x100 probably needs 2 50k btu stoves.
 

Bleiweis

Well-known member
Veteran
I have a newbie question.

I'm considering a small fully closed greenhouse with 2 intake shutters and an exhaust fan. Roll up sides are not needed in this case- right? Active air management should work better than passive (roll up sides) ?

We have hot summers and wet autumns so i'm contemplating on how to solve this problems. I'm getting tired of losing my battle versus botrytis.

EDIT:
I'm also contemplating what to choose. Double layer inflated poly (6mm) vs. single layer (6mm) poly. What should be my criteria? I would basically shut the greenhouse "off" when i'm done growing...nothing would be in it from mid november till march.
 
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art.spliff

Active member
ICMag Donor
I think I was trying to say be sure to vote but the midterm election was only for certain counties not this one.
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
I have a newbie question.

I'm considering a small fully closed greenhouse with 2 intake shutters and an exhaust fan. Roll up sides are not needed in this case- right? Active air management should work better than passive (roll up sides) ?

We have hot summers and wet autumns so i'm contemplating on how to solve this problems. I'm getting tired of losing my battle versus botrytis.

EDIT:
I'm also contemplating what to choose. Double layer inflated poly (6mm) vs. single layer (6mm) poly. What should be my criteria? I would basically shut the greenhouse "off" when i'm done growing...nothing would be in it from mid november till march.

A single layer is probably fine. Double layers are mostly helpful when you are heating. Or when there is only a little Sun and it's cold out. Depends on your climate In those months.

It's hard to not have any passive ventilation in the middle of the summer. People do it, but it's not easy. HAF fans will do allot to prevent botrytus.
 
Got mine up

picture.php
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member

What a gorgeous landscape... What size is that?

Your lucky to have such a flat open beautiful space. If you don't mind me asking. Where abouts are you? Your thing says California coast. Stunning. I can't believe we are even in the same state.

Central ca is probably the best place to grow. I wish my life wasn't here.
 
What a gorgeous landscape... What size is that?

Your lucky to have such a flat open beautiful space. If you don't mind me asking. Where abouts are you?

Thank you, it's a 20x100. I'm in unincorporated SLO county. An hour from town/ the coast.

I was paying 1000/month in power bills alone in Colorado, knew I had to make a move to grow without breaking the bank. Land here is cheap. Near the Carrizo Plains national monument. There used to be more than 300 grows in this valley before prop 64. Now they're all illegal except for about 10.

There are a bunch of solar farms here. I saw those and knew I could grow some great bud with just the sun. Bought some land with nothing on it. Commandeered some equipment from all the abandoned grows around here. Converted my dump truck from my old junk removal business and lived in it for 6 months. Now I've got a real rv trailer lol. Luckily got a good internet connection.
 

Chunkypigs

passing the gas
Veteran
Thank you, it's a 20x100. I'm in unincorporated SLO county. An hour from town/ the coast.

I was paying 1000/month in power bills alone in Colorado, knew I had to make a move to grow without breaking the bank. Land here is cheap. Near the Carrizo Plains national monument. There used to be more than 300 grows in this valley before prop 64. Now they're all illegal except for about 10.

There are a bunch of solar farms here. I saw those and knew I could grow some great bud with just the sun. Bought some land with nothing on it. Commandeered some equipment from all the abandoned grows around here. Converted my dump truck from my old junk removal business and lived in it for 6 months. Now I've got a real rv trailer lol. Luckily got a good internet connection.

that's cool! you near Arroyo? land is expensive AF there there, no? how many acres you got any does it have water?

I'm always looking for cheap cali land but can only find something off grid in my price range.:biggrin:
 

Zeez

---------------->
ICMag Donor
Any ideas on a ridge vent for a hoop house? On a 12x 18 hoop house with roll up sides, I'm thinking a 2' x 12' trap door opening 18" at the peak should be plenty.
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
You do it Just like you do a roll up side.
Just run 2 tracks of wiggle wire down the length of the greenhouse at 1 o'clocklock and 2 o'clock.
 

Bleiweis

Well-known member
Veteran
I also have the same question as Zeez about how to design a ridge vent for a hoop house.

CrushnYuba did you mean something like this? I found this under the "GrowSpan Series 500 manual ridge vent".
 

Attachments

  • RidgeVent.jpg
    RidgeVent.jpg
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Zeez

---------------->
ICMag Donor
I started off thinking about another roll up but am considering a trap door type like the pic above with an actuator to lift and close and enough overlap to stay dry. Big reason is the wind.
 

Bleiweis

Well-known member
Veteran
Hmmmm...could i get away with just HAF-fans and passive ventilation in a small greenhouse (12ft x 16ft)? So just roll-up sides and a ridge vent/trap door? All of them motorized/automated and connected to sonoff or similar smart climate controllers. CrushnYuba, your thoughts on this?
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
I think you would really have a difficult time adding a vent like that to your greenhouse. For one, those style vents are not used on quonset (round hoop) style houses. There is no flat place too put a vent It's always on gothic arch shaped houses that have a peak in the center and its a straight line going out to the sidewalls. Also, what would you diy build a vent that big out of that's ridged? They are Also lifted by rack and pinion ( expensive). Diy'ing something that seals air tight would be hard.

A roll up side type vent is quick, cheap, and seals air tight. It actually works with your shape greenhouse.

They now make gutter connected greenhouses, that the entire roofs roll back. When they close they lock shut on channels.
 

Zeez

---------------->
ICMag Donor
I've still got the bender to make the hatch conform to the curve. There are some 12v 18" actuators IP rated for outdoor AG and they lift 400#. I can get it cheeper direct from China. It would be easy to connect this into the current automation system, getting controlled by internal temp and humidity parameters. The same setup controlled two side rollup motors perfectly all last season. It should be water tight and possible to make it pretty airtight, maybe some weatherstripping.

I'll post some pics as it gets going in the early spring.
 

CrushnYuba

Well-known member
How would you fabricate the vent? And the sill for it to seal? I don't think you could get it rigid enough to get it to seal well with only 1 actuator. Ridge vents are either rolling or rack and pinion for a reason. The ones that lift and use rack and pinion have a drive axle that goes down the whole length of the greenhouse. There is a rack every 4 ft pushing it open and holding it closed. It's not a singe rack doing all the work. It's multiple racks lifting and holding closed the vent in different spots. That's why they use rack and pinion with a drive axle. So one motor can drive multiple racks. They use linear actuators for little vent windows because windows are small. They don't need to be lifted or held shut in multiple places. You do have a small greenhouse, but i would think you would need at LEAST 3 linear actuators.

With all that fabrication and obstacles to overcome, what would you actually gain over using a roller and a strip of roll lock? If you use roll lock, it will seal pretty tight when it's closed.

Here is a link that shows how the grow span ridge vent works. The Chinese company i get my rolling motors from sells almost the same equipment.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQICRAG&usg=AOvVaw2BDyxY8-_pdO_VpslWup26
 
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