Just curious if anyone has some knowledge to share.

I've often wondered how I might have fresh tomatoes and peppers through the off season. Now I'm blessed to be zone 7b/8a and have a nine month growing season for tender veggies and six months for the cold season ones. I can grow edibles year round.

However, the ones we all love the most are the cold sensitive ones.

Hoop houses look like they would work but a few questions.

Pollination inside an enclosure? While my bees can fly almost any given day of the year as we can have a 60° day at any time during winter that is unpredictable and short lived so that is out.

Temp control? As mentioned we can have a 60° just to drop to 20° the very next night. How does one manage temps inside a hoop?

Moisture? While we generally have a level supply of rain throughout the year you could say that any rainy season we have would be winter into spring with the shifting weather fronts. It can get downright damp some winters.

Production? While I'm not looking to market garden I wonder if the input is effectively offset by output?

Thanks in advance.

I have some friends in northern NH that operate hoop houses. Obviously a totally different climate. Without the hoop houses they didn't have a growing season long enough to ripen tomatoes. Their method of temp control is a crank roll-up system to raise and lower the ~5' sides. Up during the day in the summer to keep from getting too hot and down at night. I don't know what they do over the colder months.

During shorter winter days you would need artificial linging for peppers and tomatoes. Also keeping your night time temperature 40 and above for a low would be best .

Yeah, I figured supplemental lighting might be needed. I've brought peppers through as house plants but they just don't set peppers in the winter inside.

Ohio will often pay for some to all of the costs of building a hoop house the through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). They will cover up to 2,178 sq. ft. of hoop buildings. Georgia likely has a similar program.

Many of the Amish farms North West of me have hoop houses. I was surprised to see how much sweet corn they grow in hoop houses.

Keith

Green houses have been doing it for many years.
Keep the plants warm enough , and hand pollinate , if I remember right tomatoes just need wind to pollinate or a good shake.
Sounds like a great idea to me.
See Keith's post.

bMy wife worked in a tomato greenhouse in New York. Pollination was taken care of using bumble bees. They bought them and were delivered in a cardboard hive. They didn't reproduce and had to be purchased as needed. I read once that was here a disease came from that has killed most our native bumblebees.

Tomatoes are self pollinating, they just need a breeze and the will pollinate themselves. You will need fans in the house to control fungus also.

My plan for ours is not to grow through the coldest months but to be able to get a jump start and have tomatoes producing when out door growers are just getting them into the ground. But that will require me to get my plastic put on it and that has not happend yet. I got the frame on Mt 75x30 up two years ago and 1200' of waterline to service it. Haven't got the plastic up yet.

If you are going to grow them early for a jump start, you might want to put some hot water lines down under the rows so you can heat the soil and help them get started. If you have time to watch you tube videos Farmer Dre on there has some interesting videos on how he does it commercialy he is in MO.