Checked out the greenhouse, haven’t been out to see it in a while. As usual, it’s there! I’m still always…pleased that it handles whatever weather comes at it, no problem. The first installation, it was in the middle of a 9-acre garden and hayfield, no nearby windbreaks, for five years unfazed, through real blizzards and windstorms that felled trees and took roofs off of houses. Reliable!
Nice. We bought some ‘6 year’ covering for our greenhouse. It ripped to shreds this year after only 3.5 years.
This 4-year is going on more like 8 years! It doesn’t seem weak at all, just increasingly cloudy, maybe when it goes it will be sudden. I guess as with everything else, mileage varies. :)
It is important to keep the plastic very taut and tight. It apparently makes a huge difference in longevity.
What a nice surprise on this lovely spring-like morning! Mike is back…. and all is right with the world. I’ve missed your contributions more than you could know. Glad you’re still with us. Farm on!
Thanks! I INTEND to keep it up for the new season. :)
And can you tell me if the plastic is just conventional or toughened? It looks quite a cloudy plastic so does that inhibit sunlight? About me…I run the Green Careers Site at http://www.Stopdodo.com (as in the extinct bird… also online at http://www.environmentjobs.com!).
It’s greenhouse plastic, 6mil from what I remember (and what it feels like), UV-stabilized and rated for four years. It’s been at it for nearly double that and still not shredding. It was never clear but a lot more so, and has gotten quite cloudy over time. I haven’t changed it because it’s used only briefly in spring for seedlings. I’ve been told that big commercial greenhouse growers change plastic when it loses 1% light transmission due to clouding, but that’s a different game entirely. I’d take their trashed plastic, no problem. :)
On the subject of first hoophouses, I just saw this in an old post from 2007: “It took me a season to get over being amazed that the hoophouse was still standing after bad storms—I’d actually head out in the howling wind in the middle of the night to check!” Hahaha.