First Hoop Garden

[Admin]

We don't usually plant anything here until memorial day due to the danger of frost. Even with waiting till memorial day we have still lost plants to late frost so our growing season is pretty short compared to some of you folks. I've always wanted to have some sort of hooped garden so I finally gave it a go, as well as the greenhouse I'm adding onto the barn.

Anyway, since we normally are only setting seed at the end of May, the hooped garden has put us way ahead of the game and some of our bush beans are flowering already. So far so good with the hoops ;D

[stickbowhntr]

That looks good JC, real nice. I passed a vegitable farm today and they had acres of them hoops up over almost everything they have planted here. they pretty big local grower and I am thinking maybe a way to get a safe early start next year for me.

[fishleclair]

Lookin good, Just planted my Beans and peas yesterday

[paddyg441]

;D ;D ;D

Fine looking set-up Boss, them beans have developed really well, looks like a Hoop system is definitely the way to get a jump on a short season.

[patricimo54]

Looking real good JC ;D I am also liking the idea of the plastic drum rings for your raised beds.

[TRAPnHUNT]

What did you use for the hoops JC? 1/2" pvc nailed or screwed to foot boards? Looks great and even more so, very functional!! ;D

[minktracks]

They look good and should work well. Its already flame on down here. Just a note to all, I have done allot with salvage windows in the past, but it doesnt look as good as that.

[Admin]

Thanks guys.
I think it's a cool setup too. It was a experiment and now I wish I did a dozen of them. So far it's working out sliick.

Ron, I didn't use any fasteners of any kind because I like to be able to dismantle and/or adjust stuff without using tools or screws and such. For these tents, I cut 1" white PVC to 12" lengths and drove them in the ground, Then I bent 1/2" Sch 40 electrical PVC and stuck the ends in the white pipe like this: Acewoodsman had once posted pics of his hooped waterbeds for starting seeds so that's what sparked my whole interest in this design.



DH, When I was in Alaska, everyone had this plastic sheeting called Visqueen and it had fiberglass type cording imbedded in it. It was very strong stuff and I never seen it anywhere back east. So when I decided to build these hoops I googled cord reinforced visqueen and found it.
So this is what I'm using and I figure that when I no longer need the tents over my plants I'll just roll up all the piping in the visqueen and store it for next season.

We'll see how it all works out.

[trapperbud]

Nice looking set up JC . ;D

[muskrat24]

Pretty slick bossman. ;D

[tinknocker1]

hey JC your a head of the game buddie !! your beans are blooming and mine have just came up ..i don't plant beans very early here in Ohio because of late frost but i could go early in my raised beds and use your system with hoops and it would work great ..nice set up ..you guys up north have to cheat a little some times because of your shorter growing season anything you can do helps ..every year i say i'm going to do a cold frame so i can have salad veggies all winter and i never do it because i'm bowhunting or fishing and just don't take the time ..this fall i'm putting one in!!! ..while you guys are trapping and hunt'n i might be the only guy posting on the gardening board lol

[acewoodsman]

nice setup jc ;D i thought that design looked a little familiar we use the same stuff an system to protect our strawberry patch i couldn't even imagine having frost as late as mem.day the only thing i would do different is i would plant a whole lot more beans per pot looks good though

[Admin]

I was unsure what would be a proper number of plants per pot. I didn't want t overdue it. I'm presently running 5 but could add more since I have more started. What do you think would be a good number per pot?

When I made the hoops I was going by memory of what you had done for your waterbeds. I wasn't sure if you used rebar at the ground or what so I went with the 1" white pipe. I couldn't be happier with the turout.
Also, those styrofaom seed startes you sent me are the cats a**. I'll need to get so info where I can buy more for next spring.

[tinknocker1]

JC i plant 9 beans per square foot in my raised beds ... that gives them good growth and they produce very well .. you say you went 5 beans per tub ? you could prolly start 5 more in your tub now and have anoth crop after your early beans are done ..or look at your companion planting chart and add lettuce or carrots or maybe green onions or radishes your pretty much doing the same thing as me your just planting in a round tub and i'm planting in a square ..after being on your forum for some time i know you want to make the most out of what you have ..you just can't beat this system for raising food for the table ..
companion planting chart :

www.howtogardenadvice.com/garden_info/companion_planting_chart.html

square foot gardening
www.squarefootgardening.com/

what i have found when a crop is done you can have something to replace it with i just add some new compost to the square and plant ..
make sure you water your beans well when they are blooming it's been pretty dry here in Ohio and i been watering about every 3 days in my raised beds ..

some beans in the raised bed from a few years ago

[acewoodsman]

what tinknocker said is about as good advice as u could get ;D i find that beans grow well the thicker u plant them ,, yes i used rebar drove in the ground to hold the pipe its easy to remove if u need to,, i like the larger pipe but in ur neck of the woods ur going to have to be carefull they don't fill with water an freeze in the winter i'll get the info for the seed trays for u it may take a day or two

[Admin]

Tinknocker, Thanks for the links and karma to ya.
Your garden looks awesome. ;D

After Ace posted about planting more beans I went ahead and added 3 or 4 more plants to each tub. ;D

Ace, I don't intend on keeping the hoops there through the winter so no worries on the freezing and cracking of the pipe. It won't be long and I'll be rolling the pipes all up inside the plastic and storing the hoops till next spring. I been wanting to do something like this ever since you first posted those water gardens of yours. I love the diversity of knowledge that is shared on here. I've never had garden success like this so early in the season. Usually I'm just getting around to planting seeds.

[oldminkman]

The hoop set up with the pipe inside the pipe is the same setup we used at the nursery I worked at for the last 3 years. The only difference is the size of the pipe (we used 20 footers) so we wrapped wire around the pipe and anchored it by wrapping it around a bottom board that went the length of the outside of the hoop house. The houses are so easy and cost effective....


Oldminkman-

[trapperandhunter]

JC thats pretty slick ... did you start the beans as seeds or transplant them ?

[Admin]

May 28, 2012 6:04:37 GMT -5 trapperandhunter said:

did you start the beans as seeds or transplant them ?

Normally I wait till Memorial day and plant the seeds directly in the garden. This was the first time I ever started bean seeds. I started them in clear totes like mini greenhouses.


This was an experiment as well and it worked slick. Then i planted them under the hoops and they thrived in them. We already have beans over an inch long hanging on the plants. ;D

[tinknocker1]

dang JC them look aweome clear totes for a mini green house fantastic idea !! ;D

[patricimo54]

That is a pretty slick idea JC. Y'all are just gettin around to putting them in the ground and I am wondering if my little chili and tomato patch will survive this heat.

[Admin]

Thank you Gents I'm full of it this year

I've had a lot of ideas that I never put into action until this spring. I always get excited about gardening when the seed catalogs come in and then get discouraged with muddy ground and late frost. Two seasons ago Acewoodsman turned me onto some great floating seed trays and his hoop idea. I started seeds in my fur shed in floating trays and that was fricken slick, but again, our late planting time still made it tough. Last years garden was a disaster so this year I experimented with a few things.

First off, I started my beans in cut off OJ and Halfnhalf containers and I liked that better than the normal plastic planters and I'll reuse them next year. The beans shot up faster than I had expected and my hoops weren't ready yet so I bought some clear totes and that worked fricken slicker than snot. ;D

Another thing that I had posted about was my inquiry bout starting beets rather than planting seeds in the garden. I never liked planting those tiny seeds and I always planted them too heavy and then thinned them out later. My beet harvest has always been poor. This year I said what the heck and started the seeds in trays. This was the best move I ever made. I found it was just as easy to transplant beet plants as it is to plant seeds and I not only get instant gratification, but there's no thinning or wasting seeds. I had more beet plants out there than I ever have and they're all doing awesome. I'll post pics of these as well as my overhead beet troth in a day or two. I'm having the best success of my life with my beets so I will never traditionally plant them by seed ever again, same with the beans. As I previously mentioned, normally I'm planting seeds TODAY and some of my pole beans have already climbed up about 30" of string. Yeah man... I'm pretty psyched

[paddyg441]

;D ;D ;D

Congratulations on your experimentation's and the success you have had with your garden project "Boss". Imagine how excited you will be next spring when you try out your new Hot House, continued

[Admin]

Since planting time came before I got the clear panels installed on the greenhouse project, I decided to keep them off until the fall. I made a permanent raised bed along the barn wall and planted it with both bush and pole beans and I have the beans climbing strings to an overhead troth. The troth was intended for early plantings of beets in Late winter but I had so many beets started that I filled the troth up and they're doing great. Kind of a cool use of space with the beets up top and the beans down below. Starting the beets in trays worked awesome and I will continue this practice from now on. I built the troth out of scrap lumber and some discarded aluminum roofing.

The beans climbing the strings to the troth


Inside the overhead throth


And buckets of beets all over the place.

[patricimo54]

Excellent use of space JC, Karma to ya ;D

[just]

I used 3/4" schedule 40 to make a cover for my boat for winter storage one time. It worked OK but the pipe stayed bent after I took it apart. Now I use it for fishing bank poles.
just

[Admin]

Jun 1, 2012 11:16:22 GMT -5 just said:

I used 3/4" schedule 40 to make a cover for my boat for winter storage

That's a great idea and karma to ya for posting it. The more I mess with this pvc stuff the more uses I find for it. Covering my boat is always an issue but you just solved it. Now why didn't I think of that.

Two karma's coming.

[acewoodsman]

looks like u got it going on jc i;m sure its nice to get a jump on everything since u have a short growing season them pvc pipe comes in handy for alot of things ;D

[Admin]

I'll be employing several hoops into the works next spring and my greenhouse will be ready for action too. ;D

[yedi21]

Great ideas JC.....living here in New Hampshire the growing season is so short.....any bit of xtra growing time is priceless....love the hoop idea and did it myself! So easy and well worth the effort.....I like your trough idea over the beans! And starting your beets early.....good to know you had success with that because like you I plant the rows then have to thin them and they haven't done as well as I would like....I love to have beet greens!!! Oh so yummy and healthy! Thanks for sharing your pics and ideas.....as much as I would like a hot house I think that is a little beyond my skill level so have to stick to the raised beds and hoops......wishing you continued success with your gardens!