Hi everyone, I am new to the forum. Live in middle tn 6b or 7a. I have a few young trees in ground with minimal winter damage. The repotting and shuffling of the more tender varieties seems like a long run for a short slide. Perhaps in ground growing with a cheap hoop greenhouse retractable winter protection might work. Any thoughts? Also, just rooted RDB cuttings. First time. Now ready for black Madeira, Sal's, flanders, and Marseilles black VS cuttings ordered on eBay. What does the VS stand for anyway? Bill Murfreesboro, TN

Welcome bill. Not sure what the vs stands for. As for a cheep hoop house I got mine from ebay.

Dave

thanks, Dave.

Is it working out for you?

I have in ground 1 year a celeste, brown turkey, and hardy chicago.  Should have some fruit this year. I was thinking a hoop house could give a little more winter protection for a few less hardy in ground trees.

I believe VS are the initials of the person who discovered the strain of this variety.

Hopefully Herman will answer here as he's the VS on the Marseilles Black VS. 

I used to move my figs in and out of our 76 foot hoop house. My farm mate would get up earlier then me and she opened the doors bright and early. One day she forgot and by 11:00 AM it was so hot it caused all my trees in the hoop house to wilt and drop their leaves and I lost a year off all those trees. I lived in Z 5/6 in SW VA and it was still early in the year.

I have plans drawn up for wheeled hoop houses that can be moved off and onto in ground trees. It could be used to winter protect, help ripen those varieties that need extra time and heat and protect trees from birds, etc. 
I love hoop houses -- but you have to be extremely careful about the fact that heat can build up incredibly fast inside one.
I did not have any automatic ways to deal with heat build up except human ones that turned out to be faulty. Hoop houses can only really be vented on the ends so you really do need to run electricity to them.

If you can find a way that you can transfer or remove the plastic and replace with wire in the warmer times of the year hoop houses would be close to perfect for figs in colder areas but their weak point is their covers. If you've ever lost the plastic off a 76 foot hoop house in a strong storm you realize why these structures aren't more popular. But saying that I've been researching and thinking about how to use these structures as movable enclosures for figs for about 5 years now and I'm convinced if you have enough flat land and have say some in ground Col de Dam fig trees that need extra time and heat to ripen their figs hoop houses could be the answer. Again the secret is going to be in how your covering is fastened in my opinion.

Good luck Bill and welcome to f4f.

Thanks. I was thinking about removing the cover once per year. Would that be excessive hassle?

This site might be helpful in getting ideas for a smaller scale movable greenhouse.
http://www.smallfarmtools.com/pages/v-track-tunnels

Depending on the hoop house design and the material used as a cover it varies somewhat ---- but -- yes --- removing the material covering a hoop house is a serious hassle. Not because of the labor but because of the damage it does to the cover. Maybe on a smaller design it's much easier.  
And to clarify -- the last time I recovered a 76 footer I had 3 helpers and it was very easy to do in a day, but it's the damage to the plastic sheet that's an issue. Also let me clarify it was a day with little to no wind.
I know there is a better system then the one I was using, and hopefully better materials are being developed, but so far I haven't found anything that fits the bill in my opinion. 

Michael, you gave me an idea!  I have 4 portable hoop houses.  They're only 4x4....i think.  And the best way to move them around is to place wheels on them.  Hmmmm, yes, that's a good idea.  I have the ones at Northern Tool.  I got mine for only 20 bucks each a year or so back.  I like the idea of putting wheels on it that way I can push them under my trees on sunny days or roll them inside on windy or cold days. thanks for the tip!

I use a solar vent on my hoop house that opens the door every morning and
closes it every night; has worked great for many years.  

Dennis,
If nothing else smaller portable hoop houses are excellent if covered with netting or wire and rolled over your trees when ripe to prevent theft. If I had something really rare that needed extra heat to ripen I'd use a hoop house to roll over early in the year to extend the season - then I'd replace plastic (or whatever -- maybe poly carb) with netting to protect.
I've been trying to design a system for years but at this point there isn't a material cheap and flexible and durable that can be taken off and on a large hoop house. The situation gets better the smaller the structure.
The link Kerry posted is a neat little wheeled system, but I want larger wheels that have an armature that lifts the hoop house up 8 inches or so and has bigger more capable wheels so the HH can be dragged up to the barn or whatever for repair or redesign or redeployment or storage, etc.

Hi Bill.....I'm in Morristown, TN...6b or 7a depending on where you look.....we're neighbors.  I have two fig trees in ground with just some leaves piled up around the base.  They are planted close to an outbuilding which probably provides some wind protection.  One is Negronne and the other is a Kadota.  After you obtain all those nice varieties of fig trees I hope we can do some trading.  This forum is a great source of information and taught me how to root cuttings so I have several new varieties which I will be planting in ground this year.

Thanks everyone for all the great info. This forum is a great resource. Diane, I just received some great cuttings. Looking forward to rooting them and trading some plants.

The high tunnel design is better then what I was using. The hoop house I used was already on the farm when I got there. After a particularly bad storm I did have to add diagonal bracing and oak planks to the sides at the bottom and completely new ends and doors.The farm sits in an area that can be brutal. It's in the mountains and in a pocket of zone 5. Watching the thing get torn apart was impressive. After I rebuilt it I doubt it will fall prey to the wind again unless the plastic gets too old or tears. 

What makes it a caterpillar?

I disagree that what I seek is not manufactured. Exactly what I want -- I haven't found yet, but there are plenty of wheels that can be height adjusted and mounted to the bottom of the frame. Also look at the link Kerry posted. Hell you could, for example, just attach small axle pieces to the frame and use a cinderblock and a breaker bar to lift the HH and mount cart tires, slide them on - use a c. pin and go. The number of wheels needed would obviously depend on your bracing spacing and overall design strength, but I can think of a lot of ways to achieve mobility without having to lift the thing onto garden wagons. 

Perhaps my experience building chicken tractors has shown me different ways of moving around these awkward structures, but they can certainly be set up to roll with off the shelf stuff. What I have yet to find is the exact armature that would raise and lower the HH by rotating the wheels up and down with enough leverage that 1 person could do it. These would also need to lock easily into position.

One of the problems with farming in Hoop Houses in the mountains of SW Va. is the storms and debris. It's an area -- well a few examples' Craig County has no stop lights, 51% of the land is in National Forests, there's only 5,000 folks in the entire county, etc. Severe mountain storms can be as brutal as hurricanes as they pick up a lot of debris. What started the destruction of our HH last time was a very large branch blowing into the end corner and bending the aluminum brace. This broke the door frame and allowed the wind to move the structure back and forth until the plastic lost integrity. Wind gusts of 80mph happen and winds that have blown round bales of hay (who left them standing-- I know) across the orchard and into out buildings, etc. are not that uncommon. Mountain farming can be very severe storm wise.

What I like about what you ordered is the 8ft side walls. The old HH I'm referencing in this post is shaped more like a quonset hut. A much older (and poorer) design, but that's also why you can buy used ones so cheap.

Caterpillar =  a high tunnel on a track that can move to cover new ground nearby.
 For example, start your broccoli early, after a month, move it 100 feet down
the rail and plant your tomato.

Flying debris are a problem for any structure,
generally try to locate far away from tree line,
and have wind break of shrubs in between.

I know someone who tried bolting wheels onto
the frame to move the tunnel a greater distance,
they did not have enough ground clearance,
even with 8" of clearance below the frame,
they went to using simple garden carts,
which they on the farm.
You can mount wheels, but they need to be
fairly large in size to clear most situations
when it comes to grade or irregularities of the land.

The current one I have is the style you mentioned,
with sloping sidewalls to the ground,
limits the growing space,
the high side walls, you can you the entire space to grow.

One downside, bigger structure,
more cubic feet,
more expense to heat or ventilate if needed.

HJ,
I want portability mainly to extend the season for figs like CdD that need more heat and time then I'll have as my next farm will straddle z6 and 7. I also want to cover with something like welded wire galvanized after welding as I could then also use the HH's for broilers during the time not being used for figs. This high quality wire could then be covered with plastic (or ??) that can be easily removed or added. I'm trying to design the most flexible system possible because as you obviously understand, space, materials and $ are stretched thin in any farm situation.

I'm not very fond of the quonset hut style HH's as too much space is lost and it also requires much more bending over in these structures.

In the area of SW Va I like it's very hard to limit debris completely as everyone's farms are either in, adjacent or darn close to the National Forest. I usually use those large round hay bails to make walls to help stop unwanted projectiles. But there is just a huge amount of stuff blowing around in storms there.

Next go round I will use a HH with at least 4 foot side walls. I'll also experiment with thermal mass and bunnies to off set very cold nights. Anything that uses firewood is an easy system there as the wood is essentially limitless and inexpensive. As you say - the straight sidewalls sure do add to the cubic footage.

You are absolutely correct about wheel size. It takes very little slope to stop a long HH. I will use much shorter HH's next time around for the ones that will be designed to move. My stationary veggie HH, however, will be at least 76 feet -- and I sure miss the kale, spinach, radishes, carrots, etc. that used to be 50 feet from my back door. I get these now from a local farmer but they are very pricey.

I've been looking into a system of attached HH's where the air from the house, etc. is routed through as many spaces as possible to conserve heat and to filter the air. I have been using house plants to filter my air for many years. NASA did some great research on which plants filter which toxins and which plants are best for certain areas. For example -- as Mother in Law's Tongue releases Oxygen at night they are great for bedrooms. Ooops going off subject.

Anyway I'd love to hear your thoughts once you have your HH up and have had some time to consider its strengths and weaknesses.

Cheers,
mgg