I plan to put in a hoop house for raised beds.
Should I keep the beds away from the plastic on the walls to keep the soil
warmer?
What if I insulated the outside of the raised beds and then mounted the hoop
house to the upper edge of bed ? This I think would allow the plastic to
stay away from the snow in the winter.
We live in west central Wisconsin so we do get snow that could be hard on
plastic. Thanks for any suggestions you may have.
Harold

"harold steig" wrote in message ...
I plan to put in a hoop house for raised beds.
Should I keep the beds away from the plastic on the walls to keep the soil
warmer?

It does not matter.

What if I insulated the outside of the raised beds and then mounted the hoop
house to the upper edge of bed ? This I think would allow the plastic to
stay away from the snow in the winter.
We live in west central Wisconsin so we do get snow that could be hard on
plastic. Thanks for any suggestions you may have.
Harold

The plastic is incredibly resistant to the snow load. I now use 6 mil,
but even with 2 mils and one foot of snow in one day in 1999 there
were no breaks. I switched to 6 mils because I often broke the plastic
by pulling on it while it was weighed down by snow. I have tried both
hoops inside the edges and outside the edges. Outside the edges keeps
the beds bone dry in the winter, but it is also more robust because
the snow weighs on the plastic sheet and keeps it down.
It is good to have a hoop house. It gives about one month of extra
harvest in december and one in april. I am in Michigan.

On 10 Jun 2003 16:16:32 -0700, (simy1)
wrote:


The plastic is incredibly resistant to the snow load. I now use 6 mil,
but even with 2 mils and one foot of snow in one day in 1999 there
were no breaks. I switched to 6 mils because I often broke the plastic
by pulling on it while it was weighed down by snow. I have tried both
hoops inside the edges and outside the edges. Outside the edges keeps
the beds bone dry in the winter, but it is also more robust because
the snow weighs on the plastic sheet and keeps it down.
It is good to have a hoop house. It gives about one month of extra
harvest in december and one in april. I am in Michigan.

This is really good to know. We're building a hoophouse
later this season and we've ordered 6 mil plastic.

From your experience, it sounds as if we made the right
decision to order the 6 mil (which is comparatively
expensive). We're in northern PA, we'll get substantial
snow also.

Have you tried covering your plants with row cover inside
the hoophouse and keeping them going through the winter?

Pat