Constructing HoopHouse

trapdevil

trapdevil

Well-Known Member
Whats up Guys?

So just have one question about a hoop house with no electricity. I have tried to put up a carport over the girls, that proved impossible as the girls are almost 8-9 feet and a carport is rather heavy.. Tried to make a canopy from the trees that surround the garden with T posts, but with 2 people that was also a gnarly challenge to pull a 30x 40 tarp over the plants without destroying them and getting the canopy to not touch the plants. So Going to try and construct a hoop house this weekend.

I’m just really trying to avoid bud rot cause it appears Vt could be in for like a week straight of rain and feel like i need some sort of cover.

Have 15, 8-9 foot plants now in a space of about 20x25. So i’m going to try to put a hoop house together over them.

Going to drive 1.25 inch PvC pipes into the ground, that’s where the arches will sit in.

Then i will couple 1 inch pvc together to make 40 feet. If my math is right that should be big enough to be about 9 feet tall and cover 20 feet. Going to make a few arches.

I wasn’t planning on making any 2x4 perimeter, is that ok?

Going to get carriage bolts to make sure the connection to the ground and pvc won’t go anywhere.

Going to order a clear tarp that i can keep on the hoop house.

I was going to keep like 3 feet open on each side on the bottom up for some airflow.

Then take off the tarp when no threat of rain so max airflow.

Any problems with this ?

69A91D47-243E-4593-A2B9-FA72A2F39D19.jpeg
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They are like..5 weeks into
flower now, still a ways to go. Been vegging inside since like April lol

these photos are a few weeks old.
E22C5939-96DD-4FAB-A3A3-02EFA27767A6.jpeg

been shaking them out every am and after rains. not spraying anything.
Hoping covering during rain will help decrease some
bud rot and Pm

But have no acces to fans up there...

haha last thread i’ll
post about this
 
stealthfader508

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
Hey Trap ... I used to make one of these every year... I can probably help

to start here's a great calculator for the arch sizes https://www.handymath.com/cgi-bin/radb.cgi?submit=Entry ... If you want a 20' width and a 9.5' height you'll only need 30' of pipe (well about a half inch over)

Instead of driving PVC in the ground I used to just use pressure treated 48" 2x2's (deck balusters). You can cut each on in half with a point so they drive in the ground easily. The 1 1/4" PVC will slide right over each one and I never used to secure the pipes to the 2x2"s... the tension from being bent would always hold them in place, but a screw in each wouldn't hurt at all if you get wind. I've never gone above 16' width with 1 1/4" PVC and I wouldn't suggest it for anything permanent... but for a temp structure to keep the ladies dry, I think it'll work. You may want to decrease the spacing between hoops and add a couple extra... I used to always go every 4' on a 16' wide structure.

If you can I would suggest getting enough plastic to go all the way to the ground and then a couple feet extra.... I would then just lay some scrap boards along the length with some weight on top of them. If I ever wanted to roll up the sides a bit I would just move the boards, fold the plastic up, and clip it to the ends ... I never really did this though, because if you forget to put it back down before a rain, it catches all the water and causes huge problems. I just always left them down.

What's great with this type of structure is once you have all the materials you can pretty much put it up in an hour or two... and you can take it down in 20 minutes, pull the stakes and it's like it was never even there.
 
trapdevil

trapdevil

Well-Known Member
stealthfader508 said:
Hey Trap ... I used to make one of these every year... I can probably help

to start here's a great calculator for the arch sizes https://www.handymath.com/cgi-bin/radb.cgi?submit=Entry ... If you want a 20' width and a 9.5' height you'll only need 30' of pipe (well about a half inch over)

Instead of driving PVC in the ground I used to just use pressure treated 48" 2x2's (deck balusters). You can cut each on in half with a point so they drive in the ground easily. The 1 1/4" PVC will slide right over each one and I never used to secure the pipes to the 2x2"s... the tension from being bent would always hold them in place, but a screw in each wouldn't hurt at all if you get wind. I've never gone above 16' width with 1 1/4" PVC and I wouldn't suggest it for anything permanent... but for a temp structure to keep the ladies dry, I think it'll work. You may want to decrease the spacing between hoops and add a couple extra... I used to always go every 4' on a 16' wide structure.

If you can I would suggest getting enough plastic to go all the way to the ground and then a couple feet extra.... I would then just lay some scrap boards along the length with some weight on top of them. If I ever wanted to roll up the sides a bit I would just move the boards, fold the plastic up, and clip it to the ends ... I never really did this though, because if you forget to put it back down before a rain, it catches all the water and causes huge problems. I just always left them down.

What's great with this type of structure is once you have all the materials you can pretty much put it up in an hour or two... and you can take it down in 20 minutes, pull the stakes and it's like it was never even there.
Click to expand...
With leaving the tarp all the way down do you loose airflow? Just having the front and backs open, is that enough
 
stealthfader508

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
I suppose you would get more air flow yes, but if you leave the ends wide open you'll still be getting quite a bit, especially if you can get a couple fans up there moving some air

Leaving the sides down and weighted to the ground helps to keep the structure in place better and also better control of the water that comes off of it. With the sides down you can almost direct the water whichever way you want ... with the sides up water tends to pool up around the plants ... but I guess that has a lot to do with how the site itself is graded
 
trapdevil

trapdevil

Well-Known Member
So i have half of it up.
It’s standing and seems fine.

I do not have like a 2x4 base around it.

Currently it is the pvc pounded into the ground with the arch in that, seems very secure. ( They didn’t have those deck bolsters)

I feel i’ll need to add some sort of bracing, 2x4 or pvc along the top and side ?

Seeing if half stays up tonight before i do the whole thing
 
trapdevil

trapdevil

Well-Known Member
stealthfader508 said:
yes you could run a purlin along the top using pvc or a piece of strapping and it would secure it substantially
Click to expand...
Right on. that makes sense.

So i’ll put them all up ,then using a 1.5 inch pvc pipe that will the length of the top, connect that to each hoop.

What would be best way to attach pvc purlin? bolt with a nut? Carriage Bolt?
 
stealthfader508

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
if you're using 1 1/4" pvc drill a 2" screw up through the purlin into the hoop.. you don't want anything on top of the hoop that could tear the plastic
 
stealthfader508

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
yea buddy .. quick suggestion clamp the purlin on the hoops just off the ground first ... mark each hoop center on the purlin so when you attach it up top you have the exact spacing done already ... it'll be much easier and keep it all in line
 
trapdevil

trapdevil

Well-Known Member
stealthfader508 said:
yea buddy .. quick suggestion clamp the purlin on the hoops just off the ground first ... mark each hoop center on the purlin so when you attach it up top you have the exact spacing done already ... it'll be much easier and keep it all in line
Click to expand...
Totally makes sense, just like a normal ass clamp?

Just use like a normal clamp id use to like clamp my snowboard to a table when i was waxing it?
 
stealthfader508

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
trapdevil said:
Totally makes sense, just like a normal ass clamp?

Just use like a normal clamp id use to like clamp my snowboard to a table when i was waxing it?
Click to expand...
yep ... just a normal ass clamp .. that's it

then you can use those same normal ass clamps to hold the purlin in place up top when you're screwing it together ... then you can even use those same normal ass clamps again to hold the plastic to the first and last hoops to hold that in place
 
trapdevil

trapdevil

Well-Known Member
How am i attaching the tarping/greenhouse plastic to the pvc ?

Or just have it long enough so I can line the length with wood ?
 
stealthfader508

stealthfader508

Well-Known Member
trapdevil said:
How am i attaching the tarping/greenhouse plastic to the pvc ?

Or just have it long enough so I can line the length with wood ?
Click to expand...
Yea that’s kind of the idea about going to the ground.. you can weight it down that way.. on the ends you can clamp it to the last hoops

If it won’t reach the ground, or you really want to leave it up for airflow you could roll it up around a piece of pvc a few times and then screw that to the hoops... just like the purlin except on the outside
 
trapdevil

trapdevil

Well-Known Member
stealthfader508 said:
Yea that’s kind of the idea about going to the ground.. you can weight it down that way.. on the ends you can clamp it to the last hoops

If it won’t reach the ground, or you really want to leave it up for airflow you could roll it up around a piece of pvc a few times and then screw that to the hoops... just like the purlin except on the outside
Click to expand...
Okay rad makes sense.

should i get greenhouse plastic or a waterproof clear tarp ?
1A965980-BCCC-448B-87B3-8A06BD555F41.jpeg
Need to add the purlins and the cover but otherwise.
 
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