wind damage, grrr

Furious wind last night ripped the closed vent right off the roof of my GH, temps got down to 39 inside. Time will tell if anything was hurt, but my lettuce is all limp. It was on a top shelf, things down lower and up against my water barrels seem okay right now. The vent is duct taped on right now, I hope it holds for a few days until it warms up a bit.

We had high west winds yesterday also. I haven't been out to look at my GH yet. My DH parked his big truck in front of it hoping to block some of the wind. I keep my roof vents closed with bungie cords. I don't trust the flimsy locking mechanisms that came with it. I also don't use the automatic openers. Those small hydraulics just aren't strong enough in 40+ winds. I hope the duck tape holds for you. Good thing you found the vent window. Out here in the boonies, mine would have landed in the neighbor's farmyard somewhere buried in the snow until Spring. I'm crossing my fingers I didn't lose any windows. That's my GH's weakness.

Interesting, we've had the incredibly high winds for the past two nights here, too.

Same here wind chills to zero and below!
Ice is on the inside of my greenhouse door,but still over 60* on the inside.

The window was hanging on by the auto opener, or it would have been in another county. The tape held over night, I'm heading out to try to figure out what to do with it now.

We should have a special day to celebrate when god invented duct tape. ^_^

National Duct Tape Day, no one works because the duct tape is taking care of everything. I like that idea!

Well said!

I second that! I used the clear stuff to hold my wayward window in all last winter.

Clear duct tape? I haven't run into that animal, yet...

I think Ace Hardware has it. Just Google clear Duck Tape and vendors will show up.

I love the white duct tape, hubby put up the Christmas lights with it, matches the gutters haha.

That's hilarious!

Cathy, what type of GH do you have?

I have an 8x8 Rion.

I have an 8.5' x 16.5 Rion. So far this winter everything is staying in place. It would be so nice not to have to go out there in a blizzard and shore up a missing window. I've got a 160 sleeping daylilies in there now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Dear hubby secured it with two wood slats and a toggle bolt. Had to put a little hole for the bolt in the window, but it will take a hurricane to move this baby now. One slat on the outside, one on the inside, toggled together to make a nice tight closure. We will worry about opening it if it ever gets warm again. I noticed one of the doors isn't shutting properly now, too, so we will be working on a latch for it this weekend.

This may be the wrong place to start asking a question like this, but thought I would give it a shot. I have struggled with hoop house vs green house for quite a while. The high wind situation is my biggest fear on either one. Recently I down loaded hoop house construction plans from the net which uses cattle panels and plastic sheeting. The author used 4mil sheeting on the first attempt and it didn't fare well. I have used 14mil painter's opaque, plastic drop sheets for flat framed covers on my raised beds, and have had trouble with that. Would any of you have some advice as to where I could look for a durable covering material. Since this hoop house can be made portable, I really don't think I will be using it during our bitter cold winter months. May even move it into my shed which is large enough to store a small hoop house. Any advice would be appreciated.

Mmmm - I think your portability might be more at issue than the thickness of your covering. I have a 16x24 hoop house and the plastic is held to the frame via tightly fitting wire inserted over the plastic inside of a track (if that is confusing, llet me know - a picture tells a better story). The end pieces of plastic are wrapped around lumber that is screwed to the frame. I guess my point is mainly that there isn't a good way for the wind to enter the hoop house and catch the plastic or lift it, which I would think would be the biggest problem.

HTH

I have a cattle panel hoop house,I have 6mil greenhouse plastic and 12mil solar pool covering over that,stapled to a wood frame at the ends of the hoop house and going on 4th year no problems yet,and I heat it with a oil filled radiator heater,and we high winds and temps that fall below zero.

So do you think it is the heavy covering that keeps it going, Tropicman?

This new solar bubble pool cover I bought was 14 mil,I put it over my regular hard poly greenhouse shape like a house,A frame,it took the hail without a mark,and the hard poly tuf had a few holes from the hail,I think for a few dollars more it is well worth the money for the solar pool cover,besides keeping it a few degrees warmer as well.
As long as it keeps performing as it has I will continue using it.

Pagancat, yes a picture would be great. I have a mental picture of what you are talking about and it make good sense. The portablility issue has to be addressed as well. I have given thought to using threaded rods anchored into the ground in concrete. By running the threaded part of the bars through the bottom runners of the hoop house and bolting them I believe I can retain the portability if necessary. The intent is to build a hoop house approximmately the size of yours and to use it primarily in the spring to aclimitize potted tomatoes and peppers and other transplants as well. I leave a number of hot peppers in 2.5 gallon pots which could be brought into the hoop house in the fall for an extended period. Beyond that I have given it much thought, but I'm certain other ideas on usage will occur as time goes on.

Although Wichita winters are sometimes really nasty Tropicman, I'm not sure I can leave a hoop house outside here throughout the winter months, and even if I could I'm not sure I would use it from November through March.

I like the double layer idea and the solar bubble pool cover sounds like a unique idea. If you don't mind my asking, what affect does this cover have on light penetration and how do you use your hoop house? And did you purchase the solar bubble covering locally?

MR3,
I use my hoop house to over winter my tropical plants,the double layer does cut the light transmission to about 64%,overall,but it does allow enough light for hibiscuses to keep blooming thru the winter months.
As far as growing veggies as peppers and tomatoes,from November to April,I doubt there would be enough light for fruit to happen,not just because of the double layer covering,we just have to many cloudy days thru the winter,what sun we do have is only about 7 to 8 hours best and the angle of the sun,is such good sunlight is just not there.
I heat my greenhouses with natural gas heaters,and I also have fluorescent lighting ,to help on cloudy days.
I purchase my solar pool cover,From www.AmeriMerc.com,and it just so happened to have a store here locally,didn't know that until I ordered it and came next day.