Diy steel hoop house.

[Devoted1]

Heyo Yuba! Thanks for the knowledge, I'm gonna do the exact same thing for my gh now. The outlet stove is genius haha. I never knew it existed until I read your thread the other day. About the auto light deprivation, I really appreciate that you'll be doing a tutorial on it later. I've looked into it yesterday and the only part that I'm stumped on is the pipe tubing that's swinging the motor around the gh. Does it telescope/extend? Thank you for your time Sir.

 

[CrushnYuba]

Devoted1: so depending on the shape of the greenhouse, the arms sometimes need to telescope. Regular round half circle greenhouses (quonset) shape don't need to telescope. If it has flat sidewalls or is a gothic arch, it will need to telescope. The pictures I shared earlier were not telescoping. It was on a half circle greenhouse.
The one I am building next has flat sidewalls so it will have to.
The motors can also be used for roll up side wall automation on a thermostat. I will probably do that also. Just because I have extra motors but I'm short on hand crank sides.

 

[queequeg152]

excellent thread. i need to cruise the 'growing in greenhouses' section more.

i went though this thread pretty quickly so i may have missed it... but are you planning on any louver fans or anything like that in your end walls?

also i was suprised to see a pellet stove tbh. are pellets cheap where you are?

or is gas just not an option? i live down south so pellets are for luxury stoves only run a few months a year... so they are quite expensive typically, perhaps they are cheap up there?

 

[CrushnYuba]

. I am off grid so I try to keep my power usage to a minimum there to keep my solar system happy. wish that free energy growing thread was still going.

I have a 16" louvered exhaust fan im putting in my south end wall and a motorized intake louver in my north end wall.
Most of ventilation will be from the roll up sides. I have motors to automate the rolling up by thermostat that I'll be putting in, in a few days with my exhaust. Right now I have a hand crank that I stole off another greenhouse for a quick fix. Lol.
Most places in the U.S. has real cheap pellets. Definitely the north west and north east. Cheaper then propane and natural gas by far. Only thing cheaper here is regular old cord wood. But wood stoves can't be automated. Also, I really would hate to have to trench a line 50ft from my propane tank.

Here's a picture of my temporary roll up sides.

 

[queequeg152]

yea that makes sense. propane heating is a last resort type of thing down here at least.

most folks with a propane tank are just running a stove and water heater... heating your house with it makes 0 sense because heat pumps work so damned well in our climate... barely 1-2% of our days are below 40 degrees.

love the roll up sides. really a top notch grade A poly tunnel. im guessing this isnt your first =).

are you going to bother trying to net off the roll up for insects and what have you? no clue what the pest pressures are like where ever you are.

 

[Amoeba]

Looking good!

 

[Speed of green]

what lighting are you using? i read through but maybe i missed it.

also we have the same taste in cheap black and decker jigsaws, i have the same $20 model haha. works like a charm.

 

[coldcanna]

Have you seen any auto dep systems that you can install inside the GH? We get hammered with snow in Maine and you'd have to be constantly shoveling snow away from the bottom on the outside.... must be a different way to go about this.

Great thread though thanks for posting all this good info

 

[CrushnYuba]

Speed of green: I have to lighting options. A string of bulbs. 9w leds and 23w cfls. This is all I use in most days.Just to keep em awake.
For rainy days I got hid. Those new 315w cmh greenhouse fixtures. They are cool because the reflectors are tiny and don't block natural light. Then I also have 600w hps hung vertically down the middle. Won't use these much.

Haha. Got that jig saw in a pinch in the middle of the night from Wal-Mart. I ordered a pack of those netafim sprayers to try. Also ordered pack of 6.6gpm pressure compensating drip emitters. Never seen emitters that big. That's flow equal to bubbler stakes.

 

[CrushnYuba]

Cold canna. I could totally help you with an internal dep but it will be pricy. Take a look at the forever flowering greenhouses and the big farmtek growspans and stuff. These don't roll. They use rack and pinion shade systems. Rack and pinion setups are expensive. Pretty complicated to.
The other option is a greenhouse frame within a greenhouse with the same roll up system I use.
Is it really snowing that much during dep season? You don't need to cover during the winter the days are already short.
Maine is a really hard place to grow in greenhouses. The winters get like no light and are freezing and long. The summers are humid. Indoor is amazing. Y'all got basements, housing and electricity is cheap, it's cold. At one point I was going to do some indoor projects down east. When i got outbid on a house I had an offer on outside Lewiston, I took it as a sign and said f it.

 

[coldcanna]

Ha no shit didn't have any clue you had been up in the Maine area, I've lived all over the country its def a very difficult place to do anything but it makes you rugged and innovative. Growing community up here is also very chill and many many people do it.

I was looking for an all year dep system actually for 2 reasons really; first being to pull it whenever lights are on so you can't see that beautiful orange glow from a mile away, and second being the added R value at night time. I've seen those rack and pinions and I think thats a little out of reach for DIY projects. I have sketched out a system that resembles how a garage door works. The tarp would ride on tracks like the garage door and would curl up like a pool cover. All driven by a motor and heavy duty chain. Anyways, I won't hijack your thread over my own ideas. Do forever flowering or farmtek sell the light dep kit only, and have you seen what they're asking?

 

[Devoted1]

Just stopping by to say that you da man Yuba haha

 

[CrushnYuba]

It's cool. That's what this thread is for. It's totally on topic.
I would think farmtek has them. I'm sure forever flowering would sell them. Call them and ask for Eric. They are my homies but they are a little taxed. Especially for you because you would have to have it shipped. Not sure on pricing. My motor supplier has them but they are wholesale.

I don't think the blackout will add much for r value. The best way to up your r value is 2 layers of clear cheap 6 mil poly with inflation blower to inflate a gap. It will double your r value to around 1.7.
Lean to shaped wood greenhouses with solid insulated north endwalls and sidewalls are the best insulated really. Then the clear parts double layer poly or twin wall polycarbonate. These are also super easy to automate covering.
I will be running this greenhouse all year for veg. My winters are mild and short so I will only be doing double layer poly for the roof. You can't inflate the sidewalls if they roll up. During the really bad winter months when I know I will have a while that I won't be rolling up sidewalls, I will insulate my sidewalls with bubble wrap.

 

[queequeg152]

when you say "cheap" poly do you mean builders grade stuff?

inst greenhouse film engineered for transparency specifically? i would think with an air insulated greenhouse w/ 2 or more layers... good transparency would be even more vital?

i bought 3ml, "1 year" green house film one year... and yea it was way more transparent. than the stuff i use when i sand drywall.

 

[CrushnYuba]

Devoted1: thanks man. Lol
Queequeg: definitely not builders grade. That stuff isn't uv protected. You get 1 year out of it before it yellows. Just not expensive woven or scrim reinforced stuff. I covered this greenhouse with clear 6 mil 4 year. 24x100 roll was 300$ locally. That's enough to do a double layer on the 12x100 and have some left over. Was advertised as "light transmission equivalent to glass even when double layered".
Definitely not as strong as the bulletproof scrim reinforced stuff I used on my auto depps but wayyy cheaper and better for double layer.

 

[CrushnYuba]

Coldcanna: this is what I can get for rack and pinion. These guys are a manufacturer in China. I will ask them for a price quote. It's not easy to get small orders from them and the shipping is outrageous.

 

[queequeg152]

Devoted1: thanks man. Lol
Queequeg: definitely not builders grade. That stuff isn't uv protected. You get 1 year out of it before it yellows. Just not expensive woven or scrim reinforced stuff. I covered this greenhouse with clear 6 mil 4 year. 24x100 roll was 300$ locally. That's enough to do a double layer on the 12x100 and have some left over. Was advertised as "light transmission equivalent to glass even when double layered".
Definitely not as strong as the bulletproof scrim reinforced stuff I used on my auto depps but wayyy cheaper and better for double layer.

interesting... never heard of skrim reinforced stuff... sounds almost like tyvec? sounds like it would be more of a shade film?

light transmission equivelant to glass is pretty.... bullshit sounding to me honestly, no offense intended.

some of the greenhouse glass panels they make are like 90%+ due to low iron and tempering allowing the panels to be very thin and flexible.

glass is obviously prohibitively expensive though... last i checked the best films were only a little bit better than glass, but the additives they add to the LDPE to make it that clear also cause it to fail earlier... meaning you really only get that additional transmissibility for 1 year, then it drops off appreciably.

id be curious to hear what you think of the polycarbonate 2-4 layer stuff? seems hideously expensive to me, but its intriguing none the less... especially if you could extend their life with wet sanding and clear coat them with acrylic coatings like they do with motorcycle windscreens and head lights.

 

[queequeg152]

Coldcanna: this is what I can get for rack and pinion. These guys are a manufacturer in China. I will ask them for a price quote. It's not easy to get small orders from them and the shipping is outrageous.

sorry, maby i am misunderstanding the mechanism you linked,but what is stopping you from using a regular tube roller w/ urethane wheels etc?

i get how a rack would be preferred owing to torque figures and reliability, but it seems as though you could easily get away with a tube roller mechanism powered by a gear motor & torque tube.
you are basically just replacing the rack with a cheap tube, and the pinion with a conical urethane roller.

all that being said... im guessing there is a very good reason all these systems use a rack and pinion.

 

[CrushnYuba]

Queequeg: the scrim reinforced stuff that I use is pretty clear and doesn't block anymore light then regular clear 6mil poly. It just doesn't have that much string in it at all. Check out americover. They got it. Mine is like 8 mil I think. It's really tough.
As far as the 6 mil being equivalent to glass... Probably not . That's why I had it in quotes. But not far enough off that plants would notice. Also a little diffusion is really good. Glass's r value is horrible. That, the price and difficulty installing is the no one uses it. Glass sucks.
I love the multi wall polycarbonate. 8 mil twin wall is my top choice for clear endwalls and doors and anything else I want rigid. Installing it is more of a pain then poly with the h channels and everything. Same r value as double wall poly. About the sane light transmission. The greenhousemegastore has it the cheapest out of anywhere by me. Like half price of home depot.

Those rack and pinion pictures I posted I have zero experience with. I just know it's what they use for inside auto depps. I use cheap roll up motors for outside auto. They are dirt cheap, reliable and super simple stupid. So easy to install. No head scratching or problem solving. I try to keep it simple.

 

[Deezl]

I know yer going for a way more advanced automated solution but I used high tension lines every couple feet to create an inner ceiling and my tarp accordions at one end and I drag it out by hand to dep. it slides across pretty easily. Looks like the fancy systems when depped.