The plan is to leave the plastic skin off for the majority of the year. There’s little risk of frost before mid November (with rare exceptions) or after late April (although there are freak events.) The skin will be used roughly from Thanksgiving to Easter. The shoulder seasons have lots of temperature swings so there’s going to need to be some adult supervision to keep the plants happy.
Even in winter when it’s cold outside a hoop house can get too hot and will require ventilation. The simplest method is to open doors and windows and/or roll up the plastic skin on the sides of the structure. But that requires active monitoring and consistent decisive action. And someone needs to remember to close things back up before the temperature drops again too.
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Automated systems work well, but that necessitates special machinery and electricity which is verboten in my case. So I’ve discovered some clever passive mechanisms to manage some (if not all) the temperature and time sensitive operations.
Operable louvers placed at the top of each end of the hoop house can help vent the hottest air and promote cross ventilation. These louvers can then be opened and closed as the temperature rises and falls using wax cylinders. When the temperature hits a certain point the wax inside the cylinders expands and pushes the louvers open. When the temperature drops the wax contracts and pulls the louvers shut. It’s an elegant system and I’m curious to see how well it works once it’s up and running.