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gardener1908

Keeping snow off hoophouse

gardener1908
14 years ago

With winter fast approaching I'm concerned about snow building up on my hoophouse. This spring when we put it up we knew the plastic would have to be tightend before winter, problem is husband is now working in Canada and I can't do this chore by myself. It is too tall for me to take a snow rake to, so I thought about using one of those outdoor firepits and building a small fire (attended) to heat it up enough to melt snow, but worrried ice might build up which would be worse. Any thoughts or advice. I have waited 9 yrs. to get my hoop up and would hate to see it collapse this winter.

Comments (14)

  • jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
    14 years ago

    I wouldn't build a fire, I would worry about melting the plastic and the smoke and carbon monoxide gases wouldn't be good for you.

    Here is my suggestion, do what Eliot Coleman suggests, sweep it off from the inside. Go buy a soft bristled broom and push up on the plastic from the inside. Start in the middle or on the edge and the snow will slide right off. It is dry, out of the wind and a lot easier than doing it from the outside.

    Here is a picture of my snow sweeper I used this spring. We had blizzard watches out for our area at the end of March. We missed it all, but a freaky localized snow storm on April 2 dumped 4 plus inches on us. I wasn't ready for it!
    The snow sweeper is an older broom with a ten foot piece of pvc pipe bolted on the handle. I ran the bolt pointing up and wrapped it with a piece of pipe insulation and tape. I preferred the inside method to this method for the reasons mentioned before.

    Jay
    {{gwi:305981}}

  • gardener1908
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thanks Jay. I like the idea of doing it from the inside out. How tall is your hoop? Mine is about 10 - 12 feet, I'm quessing in the middle. I like the broom idea. I have a snow rake we use for the roofs, but it's kinda heavy and I'm afraid I might puncture the plastic. How tight is the plastic between your purlins? Mine has a slight sag which is what concrens me. Followed you this summer, glad you had such a great year. This was (as others will be also) my learning year. I am going to do a few things different next year, plus with the hoop already up I will get a much earlier start. Thanks for your help.

  • jrslick (North Central Kansas, Zone 5B)
    14 years ago

    My hoops are around 9 feet tall. My plastic is fairly tight, although, the snow will slide right off very easily.

    I am not keeping the plastic on during the winter, Dec, Jan, Feb. I don't want to have to run out and sweep snow in the winter. Since my structure isn't very snow load strong, I don't want to risk a total failure. So the plastic is coming off. When, probably after the first snow storm! Everything is still growing an producing, at a slower rate, but we are still enjoying fresh tomatoes and peppers in salads and in meals. The plastic won't come off until everything is dead inside or a major snowstorm is forecasted.

    Good Luck!

  • tommyk
    14 years ago

    We also remove snow from our greenhouse from the inside. We use one of those janitor brooms and push from inside. The snow slides right off in most cases. One issue with that is the amount of snow that accumulates on either side of your greenhouse. We live in a heavy snow area and there were times when the depth of the snow was getting to be 4' deep. We had to shovel . . . until I smartened up and bought a snowblower that not only removes snow from walks, driveways, paths, etc., but also removes it from the sides of our greenhouses!

  • sandy0225
    14 years ago

    My hubby and I were talking, since the greenhouse is right behind the garage, we were thinking of rigging something up so we could blow the snow off the top with the air compressor. Ever see anything like that? it sounds like it'd be fun, too. Be careful with that broom pushing on the inside, we had to wrap ours with a big towel and duct tape it over the broom, it made a hole in the plastic before we wrapped it.

  • tommyk
    14 years ago

    sandy0225: Which end of the broom are you using? We use the "sweep" end of a large janitor's broom and "push" up from inside of the greenhouse. The snow slides off the sides very easily. We have never punctured the plastic. We use a greenhouse film which is heavy-duty and very difficult to tear, let alone puncture. Our film is now 6 years old and while it was guaranteed for 4 years it still is holding up. However, next season may be it's last year.

  • thinman
    14 years ago

    My hubby and I were talking, since the greenhouse is right behind the garage, we were thinking of rigging something up so we could blow the snow off the top with the air compressor.

    It sounds like fun alright, but I'm thinking it may not work as well as you hope. Air compressors are good at supplying high pressure air, but at a pretty low volume. You can get a strong jet of air, but it'll be pretty narrow, and I think it would take a lot of moving the jet around to get the whole house cleaned off. If you tried a pipe with lots of holes in it, I don't think you would get much pressure out of each hole. Maybe if you got a few inches of light fluffy snow, it would do the trick, but I'll bet a leaf blower would work way better. Maybe you could rig some leaf blowers to come on when you flipped a switch? That sounds like even more fun to me.

    Since I've never tried it, this is only my opinion, and I could be full of it. :-)

    ThinMan

  • prmsdlndfrm
    14 years ago

    makes me appreciate that I get very little snow usaly, and when I do it usaly dont last long. Oh we get some once in a while, and every so often we get quite a bit, but it still is rare enough that we all down here forget about it and when it comes were unprepared LOL I ran into an East coast person at a store last year, we got oh maybe 3-4 inches and he commented "you guys realy do not know how to handle snow do you" he made the comment because the county was caught flat footed and the snow removal equipment wasnt prepared and the streets were unplowed. What we dont get in snow we get in ice, we get lots of ice, so our counties are good at spraying and spreading, just dont askem to plow.
    Have a Merry Christmas
    josh

  • sandy0225
    14 years ago

    Duh! I was smart enough to use the right end of the broom....lol...but it still made a hole in my 6 mil 4 yr plastic. So caution is still advised!

  • sandy0225
    14 years ago

    my air hose thing was a total dud. But it worked good to blow all the snow off the car and the sidewalk so I guess it's not a total loss. I seem to like the broom on the outside better than the inside. Your arms don't get as tired. I did get a new push broom with softer bristles. I think the bristles were too stiff on the one I used before. I also rounded off the corners as a precaution so it wouldn't have any sharp edges.

  • bagardens (Ohio, Zone 5b)
    14 years ago

    gardener1908,
    Was just wondering how your hoophouse has been holding up. I don't know how much snow you have been getting, but it has been snowing everyday for over a week here. Luckily it has mostly just been snowing lightly or we would have had about 5 feet by now. We have probably gotten at least a foot and a half to two feet total.

    Let us know how you are doing.

  • gardener1908
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Hi guys & gals, been busy lately. My husband went out during the 2 weeks he was home during the holidays and cleaned off all the snow, he says there was a small tear about 6 inches on the side ( he didn't do it, yeah right, LOL) but can be easily repaired. we haven't had much snow lately, so , so far so good. I am trying to figure out what I am going to do with it this year. Will make another post on that subject so I don't get OT.

  • gardener1908
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Looked at hoop today, she's doing fine. I am not a winter person and even walking out there makes me go "I hate winter', but I must say the itch is coming and within the next few days I will be geting out there and making my game plan. When I drive by and look at my hoop from the road it looks so empty and I think of all the life that was in there last year. I can still smell the tomatoes.

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