Hoop House Update

Even though it has been cool this spring, the plants in the hoop house have progressed quite well, and we have been harvesting turnips, lettuce and cilantro. Some peas and cabbage should be ready in a couple of weeks.

Hoop House Progress

It looks as if I picked the right year to put in a Hoop House because it has been very cool and wet this month in Northern Utah, and I have been unable to do much planting or any tilling outside. What I have planted is barely sprouting and a few weeks behind normal schedule at best. But the plants inside the Hoop House have been progressing at a excellent pace. My peas are getting ready to set flowers, the cabbage is doing well and the lettuce and spinach is ready to be picked.

Even on a cool, cloudy day, I find that my Hoop House can buy me a least 20 extra degrees of heat. A problem to watch out in the future is when it finally gets warm and sunny, I have to be careful and not overheat everything. Usually opening the doors in the morning can keep the temperature under control for the day.

I have also planted tomatoes in the center strip, and they seem to be doing well at the moment. In the center rack I have some onion plants growing, along with some squash and melon starts. Starting plants in the Hoop House is experimental, so we'll see what happens. With a little luck I should get some sprouts from them in a few days, as long as I don't fry them or drop the dang things, which is always a threat!

In the Hoop House

My plantings in the Hoop House have progressed fairly well. My peas, lettuce, spinach, turnips and cabbage transplants are progressing at a fair rate. Being that this is my first full season using it, I'm not sure what is a normal rate of growth in a hoop house. It has also been very cool and wet this spring.

Peas are doing really well

Lettuce

Cabbage

Cabbage Transplants

 Garlic outside the Hoop House is sprouting and doing well 

 I really thought that my spring spinach would do better than this!

I've moved my onion transplants out to the Hoop House, and I plan on starting my tomato seedlings by the end of this week. The soil is still too wet to do any tilling, but this Friday is supposed to nice and warm, and I have the day off! So we shall see...

Wintertime Hoop House Gardening/Give Peas a Chance

The Hoop House after yet another winter snowstorm, February 26th.

Even though it sometimes can be cold and partly cloudy outside, I have found that my Hoop House can buy me an extra 20-30 degrees during a partly cloudy to sunny day. It's not bad, but I need to work to retain some of that heat during the night so that I will not get too cold and damage the young plants.

I went out and planted my first seeds in the greenhouse on February 6^th.  I planted green peas, snow peas, turnips, lettuce and cilantro, which will soon be followed by spinach. As of February 27^th, I have noted the peas, turnips and lettuce emerging.

                                                          Emerging snow peas

                                                            Turnip seedlings

Being that this is my first season attempting to grow anything in the new Hoop House, I guess that I am going to have to consider any growing this year as just an experiment.

Hoop House

My hoop house is finally close to completion. I look forward to using it during the colder months of the year. I have already planted lettuce, spinach, onion starts and turnips in it, and I have a few tomato plants inside it.  And even though I didn’t get the supports in on time, and they are sprawling all over the floor, they are still producing tomatoes! At the present time I am studying the temperature variations on the inside so I will hopefully know what to expect while growing in the future.  This should be good for plenty of upcoming topics in the coming months. A special thanks to Mr. Robert Bird of Salina, Utah for his great design and advice on this project. But of course, if this thing doesn’t work out, he will get all the blame too!!!