Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

The journey begins.

These two hibiscus were growing in one pot, I didn't realize the red one was there until later, since it wasn't blooming at the time. A very nice surprise for me.


Then the husband and I decided we could build rather than purchase an already made greenhouse.
It was a laugh figuring out how to get the tubing bent. The first one ended up being nearly a circle rather than a half circle.

We put solid ends and low sides on it for stability, since we get some good winds here sometimes.


Alright, that is all I have time for at the moment.
Will continue soon.

I love to see green house construction progress

A green house is in my future.... someday, someday.

Thanks.
It is a 12' x 32' one. We were surprised how inexpensive it was to build, we had drooled over kits and second hand ones for years before we decided to simply try it ourselves. So if you are a do it yourself type, I say go for it. I am happy to answer any questions you might have, point out our mistakes and how we fixed them or things we will do differently next time. And yes, there are already plans for a second one floating around. Though will probably wait until next Spring before we get to it. We are thinking to make the entire floor dug down and made into AP tank and sump for some trout with 1 or two layers of grow beds raised above it, But that is an entirely different system that will need its own story.
Thanks again.
Have a wonderful day!

very nice

If there is a way you can advise of size of pipe and how it was fixed at the bottom etc, that would be great

I back Erich. A build along on the hoophouse would be fantastic.

Then a build along on your system for the hoophouse.

The list continues

agreed - im looking at building one soon - in the next 3 - 4 weeks

I was looking at a full hoop house (to the ground) but we get huge winds here - and this looks nice and solid

Thanks!

The hoops are 1 5/8" diameter.
I do not have a photo of how we attached the hoops currently. I can try to nab one tomorrow if I fail to explain well enough.
Our short walls are build pretty much in the same manner as a wall in a house. There is a pressure treated 2x4 along the bottom, 2x4 studs every 2 ft, the top has a double layer of 2x4s, they are placed so that they overlap each other to give strength.
To place the hoops, we drilled 1 3/4" diameter holes through the top board, we did this prior to attaching. We placed our hoops at 4 ft intervals. The bottom board offers support to the bottoms of the hoops.
When we stretched the film over the top, this added a strong downward pressure onto the hoops, keeping them in place well.
There is no physical attachment to the hoops, just the hole to keep them from shifting from side to side and the pressure of the film to keep them from lifting up.

Alright, I think that may be my best description. Let me know if more information is needed.
Thanks again.

I will try to get more photos up, I will answer any question I can as best I can.
I wouldn't have guessed that the greenhouse would have been of such interest.
I will stick the photos into the link in my signature as to not clutter up my system thread bunches, but will answer any questions here.
Hope I can be of help.


I am not sure the list can ever be escaped. At least I have not found one.

cheers

Yes - a greenhouse of sorts (affordable one) will always get great numbers to it - especially something new

Keep the photos coming

My mistake, the studs are every 4 ft under each hoop, not every 2 ft.

I have an idea to stabilise it from Sideways movement, or from the hoops seperating

Drill holes in a 75 or 90 mm storm water pipe the size of the hoop. Slid this in, have 2 on the sides and 1 at the top. This is something I saw on a design im looking at - will stabilize it all from swinging in wind

So - the pipe go horizontally

That is awesome. Hope you plan to share how that goes.


We get some pretty big winds here sometimes well.
It seems very sturdy, we had to forfeit some light exposure building solid ends (East has a glass door, but West is completely solid) but we gained a great deal of stability. I think the only thing that could be a wind problem is if a huge branch crashed through the film, but otherwise, I do not expect it to be moving at all. We have had some fair winds since it has been up, and some really hard rains, it has fared very well.

More greenhouse photos up, see them in photo link below.

We bought our tubing bender from Harbor Freight. It definitely takes two people to make a tube straight. I am 5' 6" tall and am the perfect height for holding the tubing as it bends, well based upon the height of our table we mounted the bender to. It only took 9 pieces of tubing for the size we made our greenhouse. (not counting the 2 that were practice, the first was more like a circle, the second was before we changed how the bender was mounted, it was about the right size curve, but was more like a corkscrew)
I do not currently have a photo of how the bender is mounted, but we used an L type bracket to mount it on its side, it worked majorly better that way. A drilled piece of angle iron would work as easily as the bracket we used, it was just something we already had and made work for our application.
We didn't think of it until afterward, but could have probably rented a tubing bender for the job, since it was pretty fast, but glad to have it now as we will be planning to use it again.
Hope that helps.
Night everyone.

Check out Mantos thread for the PVC pipe stablizers.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=7882&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=150

Yay for getting the film on without any holes the very first try. Must be the brilliant husband's idea.


Once we got the film on we started to custom cut some used pallet racking we bought used, put some rubber mats on the floor and moved in some of my dirt garden plants, took 50 tomato cuttings and of course moved in the hibiscus.
I even cut the grass, before bringing in the rest of mats, was a really dusty job.