Rainy out today. I was having a hard time getting the Agribon-19 in the dimensions i needed. I must have it at least 12' wide. The Agribon is available in 12' widths, but the only place i fount it was at Vesey's, and only of 50' lengths. I expect to have four rows needing 29 feet or so (gotta have extra at the ends to close them off) each. Tried emailing them to see if they can get me 150' in continuous length, but i doubt they will be able to even if they are willing, often the stores get them precut and packaged and they dole out the pieces.
But on the way back from visiting my Grampy at the hospital, my sister and i stopped at Paris Farmer's Union to see what they might have, and they looked in their catalog. Found something called Remay (or Reemay, a search for "Remay" bears results in both spellings). This should be a very similar spun material like Agribon. Internet search results in a number of short mentions of the Remay material, seems all positive- for uses such as bug repelling, light frost protection, increased direct-sown seed germination, soil warmer, wind protection, sun protection, & small critter and bird baffler. Just what i need. Paris can get me continuous 300' for the same price as 3 packages- equaling 150' from Vesey's --- and no shipping charges. Yeah it could be way more than may need this year, but for the same price... it was going to cost that much no matter what i did anyway. Might as well get twice the material.
So it should be in today at the earliest. They will call. I'm going out with my sister to see our Grampy again today so i will check in after that because i will probably be out when they call the house.
I really hope its the right stuff. All this plotting, planning and obsessing....!
Been too busy hanging out with my sister to get any more seeds started, but she's only here until Thursday morning and its back to California. And Grampy's operation is tomorrow. It will be a little scary.
Hubby took me to Lowe's on Saturday and we got the PVC for the hoops. I poked the ground with a shovel the other day to see how deep the frost was, its still there, so no rototilling yet even if it wasn't raining, but the rain will soften it a good bit.
The Winter Rye has taken off again, very green out there, not even Easter yet.
Not sure what to do with the apple trees. I don't dare to prune them myself, i have a book to read about it though, just need the time and the daring. But i guess i can't make them any worse. Next i have to look in on what sort of things i can use to organically control what is bugging them. Companion planting tells me to grow onion family plants around them... i think a bed of chives will do much for them, and chives are easy. Maybe toss in a few Welsh Onions....
Gave my sister a huge basket of yarn the other day. I opened up my stash and told her to grab whatever she wanted, don't be shy. Very glad of it, i have lots of nice yarn but no time. She is a knitter and knitting brings out the best in the yarns i had, crocheting does not do them justice since you get a bulkier result. At least with the stitches i use. We are going to have to mail it to her in a box because it will be too expensive to send on the plane, think laundry basket of yarn...lol
So, we will see what today brings.
Showing posts with label agribon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label agribon. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Eep!
My wintersown broccoli has sprouted, lol
Uh, garden not ready. I guess i will have to move them in and out of sun/shelter daily until a few weeks before last frost. Or may have to pot them up.
This warm weather is rather disorienting. I simply don't know what to think. We are missing like 3 snow storms and i don't recall having 60 degree weather in March for many years. I do remember it though....but i am not used to it!
My dad can't get his tractors out of the yard because they have areas that are still very wet, so until they dry out, no work can be done on my soil. No compost, no tilling... well i could drag out the Mantis, but the riding lawnmower's rototiller will do the preliminary job better and faster. And hubby desn't want me playing with the Mantis anyway, i can't control it well on account of my leg. He's afraid i'll either break myself or the tiller. He's probably right. :-p
I may have to order my Agribon first thing on Monday.
My Buttercrunch lettuce is also beginning to sprout, but they were never meant to get planted out, i just want to see if i can get a few mini heads of baby lettuce. The rest of the buttercrunch seeds i plan to direct sow under the hoops as soon as the garden is assembled.
Off to wrestle with 6-pack planters....!
Uh, garden not ready. I guess i will have to move them in and out of sun/shelter daily until a few weeks before last frost. Or may have to pot them up.
This warm weather is rather disorienting. I simply don't know what to think. We are missing like 3 snow storms and i don't recall having 60 degree weather in March for many years. I do remember it though....but i am not used to it!
My dad can't get his tractors out of the yard because they have areas that are still very wet, so until they dry out, no work can be done on my soil. No compost, no tilling... well i could drag out the Mantis, but the riding lawnmower's rototiller will do the preliminary job better and faster. And hubby desn't want me playing with the Mantis anyway, i can't control it well on account of my leg. He's afraid i'll either break myself or the tiller. He's probably right. :-p
I may have to order my Agribon first thing on Monday.
My Buttercrunch lettuce is also beginning to sprout, but they were never meant to get planted out, i just want to see if i can get a few mini heads of baby lettuce. The rest of the buttercrunch seeds i plan to direct sow under the hoops as soon as the garden is assembled.
Off to wrestle with 6-pack planters....!
Another sunny day today.
I went to Lowe's last night with my sister (who is visiting from CA this week) to check out the PVC they have and to get a bead on the prices. They were what i expected. Which is good. Only change to the plans (so far) is that i found out that the 3/4" schedule 40 will not accept the 1/2" sched 40. It isn't a lrge enough interior diameter-- but the 3/4" pressure pipe is. But the pressure pipe is rather thin walled, and 10 feet of 1/2" sched 40 does not bend to 2-3' wide very easily, i don't know if the pressure pipe will split due to the tension.
Any excuse to draw:
.
I have a feeling that the hoop will not arch as pretty and nice as that, i think the uprights will bow so i get more of a half-oval (no straight sides), and the inside edges of the uprights will create pressure on the inside top and the outside bottom of the socket pieces. But i am not knowledgeable enough to calculate these things.
So i'm going to get hubby to go to Lowe's with me and make sure it is going to work. He is sure it will, but since he will likely feel the need to rescue me in this project if i flub it, i'm going to try and reduce the level of rescuing needed as much as i can.
He needs to get himself some PVC so he can do some ground wire burying for his radio antennas, so we will make an evening of it. I am also going to print off Home Depot's price on the pipe and see if Lowe's will price-match for me. If they do, the savings might cover the sales tax.
Another thing i was thinking about... if the pressure of the hoops on the anchors will be enough to hold the hoops down if we get wind. If not, i essentially will have made a giant, white, Chinese Dragon kite... So, i will have to make sure the Agribon is pinned down with heavy things like bricks or we will have to drill holes through the hoops and the sockets and pin them together with some stiff wire (think cotter pin)...adding another step.
Now this is beginning to sound really complicated, but i'm reminding myself that we only have to engineer it once. If it works, it will work the same way for the next number of years. If it does not work, there are a number of ways to fix it.
One of which is to simply cut the 10' 1/2" pipes down to 5' and just do it like the majority of people i have seen online-- shorter hoops, but simpler structure.
Why do i want the hoops to be so tall?
Because we have such a short growing season that i want the plants to be inside the hoops, under cover, in the warmer and more stabilized climate of the hoop houses for as long as possible. I also need long term pest control, i hope to only need to completely uncover the rows once or twice a week in order to allow things to get pollinated. There are also cats in the neighborhood who have uprooted my plants before in using my smaller garden as a litter box.
Also, snow cover, if i leave some of my root crops in the ground, the taller hoops will be less likely (i hope) to get buried in the snow. I am hoping the taller walls will distribute more snow weight more evenly across the structure. ( I also plan to get a more sturdy Agribon material for winter use on the few hoops that will be used all winter.)
Do i think the hoop houses will do all these things?
Won't know unless i try, but from what i have been studying, there is a good chance they will do it, or they will at least help a good deal.
I need to start getting the companion herb seeds going. I bought a 3-pack of flats with domes that have the dreaded 6-pack seedling compartments. I dislike the 6-packs, i have the worst time filling them evenly and i don't like the crinkly sound they make, but they were fairly cheap and i needed more.I guess i will see if i can cope this time!
I went to Lowe's last night with my sister (who is visiting from CA this week) to check out the PVC they have and to get a bead on the prices. They were what i expected. Which is good. Only change to the plans (so far) is that i found out that the 3/4" schedule 40 will not accept the 1/2" sched 40. It isn't a lrge enough interior diameter-- but the 3/4" pressure pipe is. But the pressure pipe is rather thin walled, and 10 feet of 1/2" sched 40 does not bend to 2-3' wide very easily, i don't know if the pressure pipe will split due to the tension.
Any excuse to draw:
I have a feeling that the hoop will not arch as pretty and nice as that, i think the uprights will bow so i get more of a half-oval (no straight sides), and the inside edges of the uprights will create pressure on the inside top and the outside bottom of the socket pieces. But i am not knowledgeable enough to calculate these things.
So i'm going to get hubby to go to Lowe's with me and make sure it is going to work. He is sure it will, but since he will likely feel the need to rescue me in this project if i flub it, i'm going to try and reduce the level of rescuing needed as much as i can.
He needs to get himself some PVC so he can do some ground wire burying for his radio antennas, so we will make an evening of it. I am also going to print off Home Depot's price on the pipe and see if Lowe's will price-match for me. If they do, the savings might cover the sales tax.
Another thing i was thinking about... if the pressure of the hoops on the anchors will be enough to hold the hoops down if we get wind. If not, i essentially will have made a giant, white, Chinese Dragon kite... So, i will have to make sure the Agribon is pinned down with heavy things like bricks or we will have to drill holes through the hoops and the sockets and pin them together with some stiff wire (think cotter pin)...adding another step.
Now this is beginning to sound really complicated, but i'm reminding myself that we only have to engineer it once. If it works, it will work the same way for the next number of years. If it does not work, there are a number of ways to fix it.
One of which is to simply cut the 10' 1/2" pipes down to 5' and just do it like the majority of people i have seen online-- shorter hoops, but simpler structure.
Why do i want the hoops to be so tall?
Because we have such a short growing season that i want the plants to be inside the hoops, under cover, in the warmer and more stabilized climate of the hoop houses for as long as possible. I also need long term pest control, i hope to only need to completely uncover the rows once or twice a week in order to allow things to get pollinated. There are also cats in the neighborhood who have uprooted my plants before in using my smaller garden as a litter box.
Also, snow cover, if i leave some of my root crops in the ground, the taller hoops will be less likely (i hope) to get buried in the snow. I am hoping the taller walls will distribute more snow weight more evenly across the structure. ( I also plan to get a more sturdy Agribon material for winter use on the few hoops that will be used all winter.)
Do i think the hoop houses will do all these things?
Won't know unless i try, but from what i have been studying, there is a good chance they will do it, or they will at least help a good deal.
I need to start getting the companion herb seeds going. I bought a 3-pack of flats with domes that have the dreaded 6-pack seedling compartments. I dislike the 6-packs, i have the worst time filling them evenly and i don't like the crinkly sound they make, but they were fairly cheap and i needed more.I guess i will see if i can cope this time!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Seed flats... and cost calculations.
I have not been visited by the sprout fairy yet... which i understand is a good thing. If stuff sprouts too early any hard freezes might wipe things out.
But i took some pictures:
This is what i have gotten done so far, the tray on the bottom with no condensation in it is the Mary Washington asparagus i finally got planted. Just before i was about to plant them i read on the package that they needed soaking... so i put them in a quart jar full of water. Then i remembered the cool thing about wintersowing... it bypasses all steps like soaking, knicking, stratifying, cold treating and other time consuming steps. Duh. But after i started them soaking, i could not find the time to plant them.
This is where most of the tomatoes live. I started them in the black plastic meat trays that 2 1/2 pounds of hamburger comes in if you buy it at Walmart. They are only a little larger in dimension as the cardboard trays i have bought tomato seedlings in at the nursery. They also fit perfectly in the fruit and vegetable bags from the grocery store. The yellow tray is lettuce, Buttercrunch.
This row has two flats of mixed seeds. I have 5 of each planted, 10 different seeds per tray. So, 20 different things in total. They are a tomato or two, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, melons, cucumbers, etc. The little deli tray on the top is Striped German tomato... very old seed. So old that the company i got them from went out of business more than 5 years ago! And they tiny white meat tray behind the Striped Germans has 5 peat pellets of Siberia Tomato.
This shelf has the mentioned Mary Washington asparagus and the other tray contains Welsh Onions and Mirage Shallots
Sixty-five days till planting time! My blog gadget ticker stopped working and when i tried to reinstall it, my computer gave me a virus warning. So i have to count on my paper calender, but 65 days is how long i have until any hope of planting is advised.
I did some pricing of hoop house materials. I was going to go the metal electircal conduit route for the hoops, but the prices online at Lowe's and Home Depot were showing me that that was going to be way more expensive than i had thought. Most of my sources were saying or implying that the metal would be cheaper in the long run because it was supposedly less expensive per length... but if the online prices are correct, it is not true. Lowes had 1/2" conduit for $1.87 per 10' length. Home Depot had the same online price. Schedule 40 1/2" PVC in 10' lengths at Lowe's is $1.13, Home Depot has it for $1.03.
I also had read at first that the PVC would have to be painted for long term outdoor use, but researching it further, it should hold up for more than 3 years of use without any treatment. It is inherently UV resistant due to its makeup.
So, not only is the PVC cheaper, but it needs no treatment.
The metal conduit might be sturdier, but it is more expensive by too much of a margin, and then i'd have to bend it... a bender for 1/2" conduit is around $38-$45. Then, since i can't shove the conduit into the ground about 18' without it hanging up or kinking the smooth shape, i'll have to construct anchor pegs- i have seen rebar and dowel pegs used. The rebar is worth a couple dollars each and the dowels need cutting and sharpening even though they are cheap...
Now i do plan to do much of my garden. The corn will be mulched simply with black plastic to heat the soil, so that part won't need hoops, but the rest i do want to at least start the growing season with them.
HOOPS:
*7 rows
*24' per row
*1 hoop per 4' = 7 hoops per row + end hoops
= 49 hoops (PVC lengths)
AGRIBON: (AG-19)
*7 rows
*30' of Agribon per row (allowing for extra at the end to close)
*Agribon 6' wide
= 210' Agribon
Whether we use metal or PVC, we still need ground anchors. Hubby and i decided that it would be best to use 3/4 inch PVC lengths about 18" long, sunk 12" deep, leaving 6" sockets for the hoops. Each 10' 3/4 PVC will yield at least 5 anchors. We will need 98. So we will need 20 of those.
According to HD, the PVC total before tax will be $79.30
If i go with Vesey's 6' wide Agribon-19 i will need to buy 3, 6'x100' lengths and i'd have 50' to spare, the cost would be with shipping $124.80
About $204.00
If i go with the AG-19 from Johnny's, their 83"x250 is only $45 and about $10 shipping.
And i realized that 6' width won't get me enough edging to anchor it to the ground if i my hoops are up to a 6' span. I could cut the hoops in half and get 2x as many and have them be shorter but i'd really like the taller hoops and the excess Agribon on the sides will make a mess if the hoops are too low.
The more i think about it, the lower the cost estimate becomes
My original original estimate with the metal conduit was around $225
Then with PVC replacing the metal it was $204
Now with the wider Agribon from Johnny's, it looks like $135. will do it.
I hope my calculations are correct and that Home Depot will give me the online prices if the store price is different. But, if not, Lowe's will price-match HD and i think the Price Protection policy will apply to PVC. That is the scary part. Hubby said he saw the 1/2 PVC was around $3 a length when he went there the other day. But the online price is very different:
Now i will need clips to hold the Agribon to the hoops, that should only add a couple more lengths of PVC to the order. The instructions i have seen for making PVC clips is as simple as cutting a 1/4 inch strip out of the entire length of the PVC, then cutting the length into 2" pieces. One 10' length of PVC should yield about 60 clips. Adding another $2.50 to the total.
So if the prices work out this will be great... if not i will be miffed.
But i took some pictures:
This row has two flats of mixed seeds. I have 5 of each planted, 10 different seeds per tray. So, 20 different things in total. They are a tomato or two, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, melons, cucumbers, etc. The little deli tray on the top is Striped German tomato... very old seed. So old that the company i got them from went out of business more than 5 years ago! And they tiny white meat tray behind the Striped Germans has 5 peat pellets of Siberia Tomato.
Sixty-five days till planting time! My blog gadget ticker stopped working and when i tried to reinstall it, my computer gave me a virus warning. So i have to count on my paper calender, but 65 days is how long i have until any hope of planting is advised.
I did some pricing of hoop house materials. I was going to go the metal electircal conduit route for the hoops, but the prices online at Lowe's and Home Depot were showing me that that was going to be way more expensive than i had thought. Most of my sources were saying or implying that the metal would be cheaper in the long run because it was supposedly less expensive per length... but if the online prices are correct, it is not true. Lowes had 1/2" conduit for $1.87 per 10' length. Home Depot had the same online price. Schedule 40 1/2" PVC in 10' lengths at Lowe's is $1.13, Home Depot has it for $1.03.
I also had read at first that the PVC would have to be painted for long term outdoor use, but researching it further, it should hold up for more than 3 years of use without any treatment. It is inherently UV resistant due to its makeup.
So, not only is the PVC cheaper, but it needs no treatment.
The metal conduit might be sturdier, but it is more expensive by too much of a margin, and then i'd have to bend it... a bender for 1/2" conduit is around $38-$45. Then, since i can't shove the conduit into the ground about 18' without it hanging up or kinking the smooth shape, i'll have to construct anchor pegs- i have seen rebar and dowel pegs used. The rebar is worth a couple dollars each and the dowels need cutting and sharpening even though they are cheap...
Now i do plan to do much of my garden. The corn will be mulched simply with black plastic to heat the soil, so that part won't need hoops, but the rest i do want to at least start the growing season with them.
HOOPS:
*7 rows
*24' per row
*1 hoop per 4' = 7 hoops per row + end hoops
= 49 hoops (PVC lengths)
AGRIBON: (AG-19)
*7 rows
*30' of Agribon per row (allowing for extra at the end to close)
*Agribon 6' wide
= 210' Agribon
Whether we use metal or PVC, we still need ground anchors. Hubby and i decided that it would be best to use 3/4 inch PVC lengths about 18" long, sunk 12" deep, leaving 6" sockets for the hoops. Each 10' 3/4 PVC will yield at least 5 anchors. We will need 98. So we will need 20 of those.
According to HD, the PVC total before tax will be $79.30
If i go with Vesey's 6' wide Agribon-19 i will need to buy 3, 6'x100' lengths and i'd have 50' to spare, the cost would be with shipping $124.80
About $204.00
If i go with the AG-19 from Johnny's, their 83"x250 is only $45 and about $10 shipping.
And i realized that 6' width won't get me enough edging to anchor it to the ground if i my hoops are up to a 6' span. I could cut the hoops in half and get 2x as many and have them be shorter but i'd really like the taller hoops and the excess Agribon on the sides will make a mess if the hoops are too low.
The more i think about it, the lower the cost estimate becomes
My original original estimate with the metal conduit was around $225
Then with PVC replacing the metal it was $204
Now with the wider Agribon from Johnny's, it looks like $135. will do it.
I hope my calculations are correct and that Home Depot will give me the online prices if the store price is different. But, if not, Lowe's will price-match HD and i think the Price Protection policy will apply to PVC. That is the scary part. Hubby said he saw the 1/2 PVC was around $3 a length when he went there the other day. But the online price is very different:
Now i will need clips to hold the Agribon to the hoops, that should only add a couple more lengths of PVC to the order. The instructions i have seen for making PVC clips is as simple as cutting a 1/4 inch strip out of the entire length of the PVC, then cutting the length into 2" pieces. One 10' length of PVC should yield about 60 clips. Adding another $2.50 to the total.
So if the prices work out this will be great... if not i will be miffed.
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