Good stuff! I wondered how you'd get those hoops in the ground! That looks so easy compared to my imagination, lol. Thanks for the tutorial! I bought four hostas at $20 yesterday and split them up into 22 separate. I love exponential growth!! 🌱🌼💜
Last year I made a hoop cover for wintering my plants and you are totally right When putting the plastic cover over the hoop you definitely need help and you need to have whatever your going to use for wait to hold it down My plastic blew clear across the pasture.
As you're in Mississippi, I don't expect you need to worry much about snow or wind. Up here in Indiana, especially among the windmill farms where I live, both are a serious concern. Right now, I just have a cheapo Amazon hoop greenhouse, but I have to tie it down with 15" spiral stakes and tie-down straps. Inside, I'm going to use a couple of 4x4s in deck supports to further support the top bar from the weight of the snow. This will be my first year trying to overwinter plants in pots, so I'm really counting on the principles of extra layers = extra zones to keep my perennials happy. Thanks for showing again how to bend the conduit. We're considering doing that for our next greenhouse.
We're in NW Alabama. Occasional snow, but not even every year. Some windy days, for sure. Temps down to around 10 degrees, 0 last winter, but that was unusual. Our winters aren't bad at all, but where they are, everything just has to be beefed up more... heavier plastic... better secured... extra bows, braces, etc.
Great video as always! I am glad to see this amount of activity on your channel as well. As soon as I got the notification, there was lots of views. Keep up the good work in the nursery and here as well.
I did not trim my plants last winter and totally regretted it!! Hot mess come spring. One suggestion would be to line up your pots and use a shear - much faster than trimming individually with hand pruners.
I only have about 25 hostas in pots, but I bury them in my garden up to the rim and mulch with several inches of straw. Worked well last winter - I am in zone 6b. BTW those 25 are divisions from the six hostas I bought from you a couple years ago. They have done well.
Why so low and not build it taller where you can walk under it? With age wouldn't this get difficult to bend down to check on the soil moisture? Love all your videos! Thank you!
Soil moisture only needs to be checked every couple weeks... very moist environment inside, so not really an issue. Built much taller and it'll dry out easier with a larger air space. Age? When I can't bend over to check on my plants, I'll have to quit growing plants.
Even in a cold zone, you might be surprised how much difference it makes. It's not warm inside, it just moderates everything... wind and moisture especially.
Ok, I want the pipes and pipe bender someday, but you sure made me feel glad I bought hoops for now lol I hope that feeling lasts till spring grin We tend to get ice more than snow here in Arkansas and may need to turn on AC again between first frost and first freeze. Only God knows. Thinking I will have my son come help me with the frost cloth... work up a sweat and then we'll have some frozen hot chocolate 😊
Great video. I just finished my low tunnels before I saw your video. I followed the measurements given by the bootstrap farmer included with the bender and ended up with 4 ft. high tunnels by 4 ft wide. I wish I would have made them lower and wider. Your video is of value to anyone who is considering that. Thanks for all you do!! - Kurt
Awesome job. Yall knocked it out. God has truly shined upon your family. We just put up our hoophouse/greenhouse the weekend and moved some stock in. We have to make the decisions on what we can keep and what not. ** I did want to ask methodology is for end of season. Do you try and save the scraggly plants and thin them keep the good one's. Maybe an idea for a video. 🤷♂️ Nursery looks amazing. 👌
Great video. IMHO 3/4 inch is overkill, i use 1/2 conduit. To anchor the plastic down I use small sand bags that I buy from Uline. The wind is still problematic and once it gets under any part of the plastic it is game over as it will pull the entire side off. Snow is good, it works as an insulator and helps keep the wind from getting underneath the plastic. The ends are sort of a pain to get organized and be sure to leave lots of plastic at the end to deal with that.
Great video. Wondered if the tubes you fill with water for pool covers would be a good way to secure the bottom of the plastic. They also have blocks that you also fill with water. You could probably get several years out of them. 👍👍👍
Probably work fine. Just about anything with some weight to it will work. Bricks, firewood, lumber, sand bags, buckets of rock, other plants. Main thing is to get it down pretty tight to the ground so wind doesn't get under it.
Plants covered like this need very, very little water in winter. The sun is low, the temp is low, plants are dormant requiring very little water, and things just don't dry up quickly at all in the very humid tunnel. I take my covers on and off when we're going to be warm for several days, and when I do, I just check on everything. If anything needs to be done, I do it, whether it's weeding or water or whatever.
Very little, if any. The humidity is at or near 100% inside the tunnel so minimal drying takes place. Lots of condensation. Plants are dormant and have very minimal water needs. Doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on them once in a while. When it’s warm and rain, I just leave them uncovered. In cold climates, you could cover them all winter, never watering, and they’d do fine
Thank you! great info. Quick question...you mentioned trimming your perrenials back before storing thru the winter. Does that include hydrangeas? Thank you bunches!!!!!
I just put anything heavy on the plastic to weigh it down. This yer I'm going to use nursery pots half filled with gravel - should be very efficient in keeping things nice and snug.
Thanks for the video! Would an unheated greenhouse also work to store perennials in the winter? I have some in 4 inch pots, I'm wondering if they would be ok? I'm in zone 5.
The issue with greenhouses is how much they heat up in the sun! Up here in Alberta Canada our unheated greenhouse can go from -40 at night to 40 above in a single day…. Thats tough on plants.
