It's all Plain to Sea

[mrhobbithhnet]

Hi there folks...

I've been having a long discussion with a fella in Missouri who's been growing figs in a 100' hoop house - that one house is practically paying his rent! He started out with a veggie operation, planted some figs, and now the figs own the joint... and are dripping with fresh figs he markets locally - no more veggies, but hey! who needs veggies when figs are on the menu!

Anyway... he is not on the forum, but I thought you'd be interested in his story. So... after deleting another onslaught of spam and spam users, I thought I'd mention him and do a clumsy but passable job of cut'n pasting some of our email conversation...

Basically, what he now wants to do is put in another 100' hoop house, this time with a SHCS. The design issues - fig roots will infiltrate perforated pipe eventually... and the length and size requires some design consideration that is slightly different. His other issue is that for figs to remain in production longer, he is interested in also boosting the annual average low temp with a waste veggie oil forced air heater. As well, it looks like his subsoil profile is too rocky below 3' deep for a tubing install...

So, stay tuned... as time permits I'll post some of the design discussion with solutions and suggestions.

Are you interested in more???
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[Hex]

Hi Mr H
Count me in!

Sounds like a fun project with some interesting design issues to solve.

If he has plenty of space he could use a large external matrix ..that would take the roots out of the equation altogether, but might be a nightmare to insulate.

Perhaps his first tunnel could be plumbed into it as well, via a manifold ..a cheap retrofit without digging anything up

Interesting proposition having both tunnels driving the one huge external matrix.

It might also be just as interesting if he left the old tunnel without shcs.. then he could compare the two, side by side for a year.

So many great possibilities

I wonder if there has been any data recorded over an extended period of time for a shcs equipped tunnel/greenhouse vs a non shcs structure for comparison on the same plot?

Regards
Hex

[mrhobbithhnet]

[Hex]

Hi Mr H,
An interesting document.
The results were pretty good considering the duct layout (single layer) and material used.

I`ve no idea what the standard greenhouse is over in Bulgaria, but here even inflated skin greenhouses are unheard of.. they`re not commercially available that`s for sure.

Most people i`ve spoken to are set in their ways and actually consider them too high tech!

So they continue to "insulate" (they think so anyway) in winter with a layer of bubblewrap and crank up the heater, with little regard to the condensation and ventilation issues they will face..some people obviously have more money than sense.

It`s great to see there are still some people interested in doing things a little differently

[mrhobbithhnet]

[Hex]

Hi Mr H
I`m over here in olde worlde victorian england..or you`d think so looking at most of the greenhouse designs

I guess sooner or later the penny will drop when fuel prices increase further, but for now it`s a seesaw of bubblewrap in winter and shadecloth in summer.

I guess no one over here bothers to look much further than that..
if they did they might notice ETFE foil (maybe called Tefzel? on your side of the pond) screen printed with dots or stripes, lasts 20yrs or more and depending on the level of inflation gives variable shade and insulation.. no shadecloth, no bubblewrap to mess with.
No one seems to be offering a greenhouse design that incorporates it

You are lucky to have places like farmtek etc, you wouldn`t believe the hassle i had trying to locate a small blower (150cfm @ 1" wg)
.. not a Dayton in sight ..exactly the same story for poly-lok and countless other items that are easy to find anywhere but here.

Maybe i should consider emigrating

[mrhobbithhnet]

[mrhobbithhnet]

[mrhobbithhnet]

Here's some recent pix of the
Fig Greenhouses in Missouri.
_________________
Just because it looks that way doesn't mean the Universe is about us, you or me. It's about Life.

learn | read |
locate | talk |
listen in tech | listen in humor | videoz

[Hex]

Hi John
Thats an interesting read and some nice pics...its like a jungle

[mrhobbithhnet]