Low-cost, Versatile Hoop Houses

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We gross about $2,500 a year from that hoop. Most of the money ends up in our pocket for the simple reason that, except for buying a few hundred dollars worth of seed each year and replacing the plastic covering every three or four years, we've already bought and paid for everything else we need.

If you wanted to be a full-time hoophouse grower, you could easily fit 10 big hoophouses onto one acre and earn $25,000 a year.

Don't let hoophouses fool you. They are not just for cool-weather production. We grow crisp, sweet lettuce (heat-tolerant varieties, of course) all summer in a hoop, despite record heat and drought the last few years. We use the hoop as a "shade house" by removing the plastic skin and then covering the south half of the frame with 50 percent shade cloth. We both cool and irrigate the lettuce with mini-sprinklers on the ground or a line of overhead sprinklers fastened to the center purlin. The combination keeps the lettuce as moist and and fresh as misters in a supermarket produce display.

Hoophouses are not just for vegetables either. My wife, Melanie, sells cut flower bouquets at our farmer's markets. Her lisianthus, snapdragons and even sunflowers absolutely love it inside a hoop where they are protected from the ravages of wind and rain.

The next hoop we build probably will be just for Mel's flowers.

Related Article:

Choosing a Greenhouse

Hooping It up

By Kent Fellenbaum
Photos by Jerry Jost

"User-friendly" best describes a hoophouse — and there are as many ways to build one as there are ways to use it. "I don't think I've ever seen two built the same way," says Dan Nagengast, executive director of the Kansas Rural Center. The photos on this page were taken during a hoophouse-building workshop sponsored by the Center. Despite the differences from one structure to another, there are a few basics for all hoophouses.

1. Site Selection — Pick a level spot with good, well-drained soil. Plant cover crops before you build to increase soil fertility and help control weeds. In much of the country, hoophouses should sit perpendicular to prevailing winds for best cross-ventilation - east to west. Avoid trees and other obstructions that will shade the hoop.

2. Easy access — Closeness to sources of electricity and water keep your hoophouse user-friendly. It won't rain in a hoop, so you'll have to irrigate, whether you hand-water with a garden hose, use drip irrigation, sprinklers or all of the above.

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