someone, on one of these sites, had a link to a wonderful homemade hoop house. i'm going to make a smaller one, over one of my raised concrete block beds. if i knew how, i'd post the link--perhaps search will help?

Duhh-bright me! sorry, i'd surfed several sites, and forgot-the sites in a post just below yours. i'm going to try a smaller version, using rebar about 4' inside the pvc pipe.

Not a recommendation - haven't ordered anything from them yet - but www.GrowersSupply.com has supplies for hoophouses and other stuff. I am also in MA zone 6 and am wondering what the best way is to extend my season and get seedlings started earlier - but FRUGALLY! Have to worry about wind, too, in case a hurricane blows in. Maybe I'll just try the recycled window over the bales of hay trick this time.

Mayfkwrhem,

I'm guessing by your screen name you live in the town with the famous rock. That would place me about 15 or 20 min north of you up 106.

I am working with a sales rep from Farmtek.com to see if I can get one that will fit my site. Their standard sizes are just too long. They are saying that if I modify in any way it will void the warrantee but the price isnÂt bad. A 14'x24' 8' high frame is 399 and I figure the poly is about another 50 with miscellaneous parts I am looking at under 600 with shipping. Now that I look at it together it was more that I wanted to spend. I guess I will have to give the wife the "itÂs going to be 399 and maybe a little extra for the miscellaneous stuff".

Hi Elmwood, no not Plymouth, next town over. Are you a commercial outfit open for business where I can spend more money that I don't have?? It's a good thing the significant other and I keep our finances separate. Otherwise I'd be in deep you-know-what. The plant addiction is completely out of control.

You must be doing some serious season extending! I'll have to watch for your posts, great to have someone on-line who has to deal with a similar climate. I've read Coleman's books etc. but haven't gotten around to implementing his ideas. The way that produce prices have been going up it's probably time I got serious about growing more than tomatoes and eggplant (I plant other things but they just don't produce much, I have absolutely horrible soil and am too cheap to buy enough soil amendments. When I was a kid we had horses etc. and I just can't see spending a lot on what I used to always try to get rid of ). Have you thought about buying a small greenhouse??

I have been talking with Stan Abell at Farmtek about the ClearSpan Hoop Cold frame you mentioned. We also receive a fair amount of snow. I have a 14 x 18 glass aluminum frame greenhouse. The frame was severely bent following a heavy wet snow storm a few years ago (I think '99). The Clearspan frames are 4' on center. Farmtek and growers here have recommended buying one size longer than needed and setting the hoops 3' on center. I would highly recommend this, avoiding a bad snow experience will make it worth the extra investment. The large grower hoop houses that were either reinforced with additional purlins or more closely spaced hoops survived the storm I mentioned. Newer hoop houses with more widely spaced hoops were damaged.

After I added up the latches for fabric attachment, base boards,plastic film, end construction, life span of the film and my time, I decided to wait a year and check out other options. Well, more than a year has passed so.... I just purchased the ProGreenhouse from FarmTek using the longer life and heavier polyethyene cover and will see how it works in our kitchen garden.

I'm new to this forum. I have been "three" season gardening under coldframes for a few years. I've read Coleman's book and am ready to add another season.

Mayflwrhem, I am just an obsessed home gardener finding a way to make it through the winter. I read Coleman's books and decided to give it a try. As far as soil amendments, I compost the lawn clippings, garden, kitchen scraps, leaves with a bale of straw $6 from the local farm supply place and that seems to do the trick. A few years ago I bought 2 yards of compost from them for $25 or $30 to get me through until my compost took off.

RDKlein, I was thinking of buying the 24' long 4' spaced version and resetting to 3' to make it a total of 18' long. The rep I talked with said it would void the warrantee but more important, before I buy I need to find out how the hoops attach to the base and to the purlin. I would rather not have to cut and re-weld the joints.