Hoop House growing

It can be cold in the pnw

Plants that prefer warmer weather (melons, peppers, tomatoes) need a little help up here. We definitely start our seeds indoors around the end of February. Once the threat of frost has subsided, heat loving seedlings go into the hoop house where they grow… and grow… and grow! Scroll below to see the typical procession in a season (the gallery view works best on a desktop. mobile views may not allow the ability to scroll through images with accompanying text).

March

It’s messy. Chickens were housed over the winter, and they pooped and scratched all over. But they did a good job weeding and fertilizing

Forming the beds

Underneath the poop are the walkways and drip tape irrigation. Once the beds have been reformed and the walkways cleaned, the house is ready for seedlings!

Tomatoes and rollerhooks

I am a big fan of rollerhooks. They allow you to train those tomatoes to go high while at the same time allowing for more plants in the same area. When done planting, this 40 x 12 hoophouse was planted with 96 indeterminate and 12 determinate tomato seedling.

Mid April

Threat of frost has finally passed, and tomatoes are getting themselves set

End of May

Things are growing nicely. Now we are actively pruning the indeterminate tomatoes so they grow up the rollerhooks and not bush out

Melons and cucumbers

Starting to take off

End of June

The biggest tomatoes are now about 6 feet. We are seeing our first green tomatoes

Melon vines everywhere

Peppers in the front haven’t totally taken off yet, but we are seeing our first melons and cucumbers

Mid July

Some tomatoes have hit the ceiling… 8 ft. Lots of fruit setting in

Mid August

Non stop fruit production! Picture don’t really do it justice. Everyday about 10 pounds of tomatoes come out.

Yellow watermelon!

From seed to fat melon: 5 months

Lily Melon

Tomatoes galore

We go into the hoophouse every 2 days, and every 2 days come out with about 20 pounds of ripe tomatoes.