The Greenhouse and Hoophouse Grower's Handbook: Organic Vegetable Production Using Protected Culture Paperback – January 31, 2017

I’m into my second year of full time farming but this will be my first year in a hoop house/high tunnel. I’m in MN and I appreciate that the author expresses the one size does not fit all. The climate in the northern hemisphere is fear different than even central USA .This is an easy to understand handbook, that is worth the price/ whatever you pay.

I'm a newbie to all levels of covered crop growing. I'm also just gardening for my family, focusing mainly on trying to prolong our grow seasons for those particularly finicky crops that can not take our 95F+ degree weathers here in North Florida. I've been having pretty good success growing tomatoes in a high tunnel with shade cloth, while most people here stop growing Tomatoes in early June since the extreme heat can cause stunting and sterile pollen issues, we've been able to eat tomatoes pretty much daily and I see no stopping in new blooms.This book really does lay out everything in an easy to understand, and easy to digest format with no gimmicks or filler nonsense. Just a few pages in I've learned more than in the several months of online research - things you wouldn't even think about googling about are at my finger tips now. I'm extremely satisfied and happy I bought this book and I really can't see myself needing any other book.

Excellent read and resource for anyone who is considering growing in a greenhouse or hightunnel. would recommend to others.

This book has a lot of the information I wish I had had before I built my 36 by 12 hoophouse and grew in it last year.I am a home gardener who has discovered that growing in a hoophouse is a lot more challenging than growing outside. I read Winter Growers Handbook and based on its advice I bent top rail and built a hoophouse in fall 2017. I used a single plastic layer as a cover as the Winter Growers handbook recomended. As I now know from meffered's book i need a double layer cover because of my zone 4 weather. Wish I had read Mefferd's book before I started my hoophouse endeavor. Doing so would have saved me a lot of poor performance and the cost of making changes to my hoophouse..I started growing in my hoophouse on Mach 1 2018. I had trouble with condensation forming a sheet of ice on the inside of the plastic blocking all the sun. If it was cold and partly sunny outside the ice didn't melt and it was often colder in my hoophouse than outside. Mefferd mentions Anti-Condensation Infrared plastic as a way to deal with this HUGE problem of condensation. That anti condensation coating helps to cause the water to run down the plastic rather than bead up and stick to the plastic. Having a double layer plastic cover keeps it warmer inside and helps to melt any ice from condensation that does form on the inner layer. I planted seedlings in my hoophouse Nov 1, 2018 and there has been no growth due to lack of light and it not being warm enough due to the ice on the inside. I actually thought that if i sealed up all the gaps that allowed cold wind to enter i would not have the ice problem on the inside of my plastic. If I lived in zone 6 on the Maine coast it might not be as big a problem, but in zone 4 it is my biggest problem.Snow removal is the second problem for my self made Gothic arch hoophouse with a 45 degree angle at the peak. Mefferd says a roof rake wrapped with a towel so one doesn't perforate the plastic is one way to get it off. I and many others have found bouncing the snow off from inside with a push broom wrapped in a towel works for small amounts of snow. But it often snow every other day making snow removal a frequent and big time commitment. Mefferd does not mention that a two layer inflated cover on the roof sheds snow but snow sticks to a single layer cover. I saw a youTube video where the farmer said he didn't see how one could grow in the Winter without a double layer cover. I plan to put an inner layer of anti condensation plastic on this fall. Nolts Supply in Pa has a battery powered inflation blower that I plan to use.Anti-weed fabric is not discussed by Mefferd. It may not fit into a high intensity commercial operation but for a home gardener the trade offs might work out. Last spring the weeds in my hoophouse got out of control because I was planting my outside garden at the time I needed to be weeding the hoophouse. In my outside garden I have used a tomato can and propane torch to punch holes in anti weed fabric or plastic mulch. I plant my seedlings in the holes with a half plastic tennis ball can around them for vole protection. I will see how it works for weed control in the hoophouse. In the outside garden this approach dramatically reduces time investment to an hour or two a week for weeding. I wasnt being realistic not using it inside my hoophouse. I lost over 50% of my production due to the plants being crowded out by the weeds. Time investment is a big factor and if a measure likeweed fabric cuts my time commitment by 90% it can cut my productio by 50% and I am still way ahead. Mimizing time imput is essential for the home gardener. Any more time spent and its just cheaper to buy ones greens.Ventilation/ over heating is a problem. Mefferd mentions the usual solutions,used by professional farmers. They are manual roll up sides, motorized roll up sides ($2500), ridge vents (manual or motorized) , end wall louvers, big blowers, shade cloth ect. etc. I built my hoophouse with a ridge vent that got torn off by gale force winds up here in the mountains. Then I tried a roll up ridge vent. But by May first it became obvious that a ridge vent was not enough to keep temperature below 90. I needed rool up sides. But hip boards on my semi Gothc would have caught snow and prevented it from sliding off. I finally just took all the plastic off the north side of my east west oriented hoophouse on May fifteenth. This spring I will try shade cloth and blower fans hooked up to a thermostat to keep heat down till May 15. Then I will take the North side plastic down. I will see how that works. Hopefully it will keep it cool enough without rolling up and down side walls every morning and evening. If it doesn't I will build a 16 by 16 hoophouse with straight sides and a steep 45 degree slope to shed snow. Hopefully that will be able to be ventilated by vents in the end walls that could be inexpensively automated with thermal force pistons. If that doesnt keep it cool this design will allow me to have hip boards and traditional roll up sides if I need them and allow me to keep the plastic on the roof.Mefferd's book covers what commercial framers are doing to get an extended growing season. For a low cost and low labor approach for the home garden there is still some details to be worked out. What works for a farmer is too time consuming or too expensive for a most home gardener.For tomatoes I use a low cost approach in the garden . I have 6 ft wide perforated row cover that I tape into a 18 ft wide cover with packing tape. I wish I had known that DuBois sells big 30 by 300 foot pieces of the perforated row cover before I bought the 6 ft wide roll. I put it over PVC hoopes, But even with the perforations I have to leave one end open or it over heats. So I dont need the hoophouse for the tomatoes, The hoophouse is just for late fall and early spring salad greens.

Have not finished the whole book yet, but on the section I have finished it is very helpful and practical advice. Some of the information about climate control was not as useful to me as I am doing high tunnel growing with limited technology. I am growing primary for consumption my extended and immediate family. The book was useful for basic how too information and seasonal planing, which is new to in regards to protective culture growing / high tunnels. Being in the northeast season extension is a must. This book was aimed more towards larger scale green house growers, but information inside can be applies across the board, including small family hoop houses.

I wish I would have had this years ago, it would have saved me a lot of grief. If you're using a hoop or greenhouse it's a must have book.

As a small flower, herb and vegetable farmer I’m always looking for education on how to grow better and more efficiently. While I am a field grower, the insights this book provides are still very valuable as I work to understand plant responses to the environment and how I can steer/care for them better.

This book has a wealth of information about protected growing of crops. Very glad we purchased this book. We just bought a hoophouse this spring and are looking forward to getting it into our growing cycle next spring. We will erect it this fall. This book concentrates on the eight common plants most vegetable gardeners grow and will be a big help to us as we shift from in-ground plots to a protected environment. Being in Maine, we are eager to extend our growing season, especially for tomatoes. While this book is aimed at large operations, even commercial, there is still much information here applicable to the smaller home garden.