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Trumbull, CT 06611, USA

Here in CT, I battled frost early Monday morning and today battled intense sunlight. The leaves burned a bit today because I am sure the hoop houses were well over 100 degrees with temps outside in the mid 80's. They were opened and I thought well ventilated.

Anyone else battling?

Preventing frost: I used buckets with blankets on top early on and yesterdsay I covered the hoop houses with heavy blankets as they outgrew the 5 gallon buckets. That seemed to work well.

Preventing Intense Sunlight: Still working on that. My hoop houses are 4 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet high. Any suggestions?

Thanks and good luck......Ray Leonzi

5/15/2007 8:57:10 PM

South Bloomfield, Ohio

Having the same problems here Ray. It's been very warm and sunny during the day and cool at night. After frost danger was gone, I opened both sides of the hoop houses and let the plants deal with the weather on their own, be it wind, sun, or cool nights. Lack of rain is hurting the most right now. Sure, I have a drip irrigation system, but nothing beats Mother Nature's method.

5/15/2007 9:10:11 PM

i stuck lawn chair over tiny plants on 90 ° days in afternoon worked great

5/15/2007 9:33:37 PM

Berlin,mi.(zuhlke2@hotmail.com)

I use some of that weed block material to shade my plants for the 1st week or so. I just use some pvc pipe stuck in the ground and use rubber bands to hold the material to them. As far as frost, don't ask me. I let all my plants freeze on sunday. lol. Time to plant backups.

5/16/2007 6:47:28 AM

Hudsonville, Michigan (michiganpumpkins@sbcglobal.net)

Ray:
What's on your hoop houses? Plastic? If you use Remay cloth it will cut some sunlight and the temps won't spike as high during the day. I've found about a 10 degree reduction in full-sun temps under the row cover vs. plastic.
But then again the cloth won't help you as much at night with holding any heat.
Frank

5/16/2007 8:00:12 AM

Garage sale bed sheets quick fix for shadecloth,,esp with hoops that small. Heat in the hoops for frost,,once again the water jugs work, add as many as necessary during the days so they warm up in the hoop,,

5/16/2007 9:27:17 AM

Georgia

Steve its good to hear that your not throwing in the towel and planting some back ups. I had some burn damage the opposite of your problem and I think I gotta re plant this weekend.

5/16/2007 10:28:15 AM

Commack, NY

Ray,
send me an email

bigpmpkn@optonline.net

Scott

5/16/2007 10:31:40 AM

Windsor, Ontario, Canada

I was outside in golf ball sized hail getting pelted trying to stop the two hoop houses from flying away in 40MPH winds. My fiance thought it was the funniest thing from her point of view in the window, me not so much.

5/16/2007 4:56:20 PM

Owensboro, Ky.

Temp are not a big prblm here this time of year, but last nite I saw stuff flyin...65mph gusts for a few minutes...silt fence wind breaks minimized damages...a couple of folded over leaf stalks on my largest plant, but all is well. Peace, Wayne

5/16/2007 9:35:41 PM

Cameron,ontario Team Lunatic

Hey Steve, your not the only one to lose plants. Our temps went down to 24 F on Saturday night & froze all our plants even though they were under coolers inside our hoophouses. The weather man only called for temps @ 32-34F, so I didn't add any heat, as the plant had no problem with those temps any other night. WHAT A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. Thankfully, a couple good friends had back-ups for us. Last time I believe the weatherman. We lost a couple good melon plants as well.

Phil

5/17/2007 6:16:27 AM