Special to City Boy Mccoy

This is my toy that you keep asking about. I have tomatoe plants in there 6 feet tall and tomatoes little bigger than golf balls.

(My neighbor, who does this seriously with serious large buildings...keeps poking fun at my toy)

tw

Got 45 of those houses at the farm that are 40X100 and another six at the retail store. I think we might need them tonight cause its suppose to get clsoe to 30. We even had a little snow this morning.

You got an exhaust fan in the other end?

So, having said that, I am aware of the time and effort that they put into this small operation compared to yours. I cannot imagine the amount of labor required to keep your operation up and going.

I was wondering...when you replace the plastic on your buildings, how do you attach it at the bottom on each side? A friend of mine operates a plastic extrusion company and I got from him several hundred feet of plastic strip about 3/4 inch wide with holes in it. The stuff looks like the tape that plumbers use to hang pipes with...has holes down the middle the same way. We used this as a test on the neighbors replacement and it worked very well.

TW

Our houses have 2 X 6's on the bottom and we use what is called "batten" tape to secure the bottom and ends. Batten tape is a woven plastic that is 3" wide and comes in rolls 300 feet long. Then we use staples about every 3". We also throw some of the tape over the houses to keep the wind from popping the plastic loose. The straps over the house we use roofing nails to hold them in place.

Some houses use an aluminum type of fastener to hold the plastic that has a wedge in it that locks the plastic in. You can get it for single plastic, double plastic and even some that hold two plastics and shade cloth.

Its quite an operation getting all the houses covered each year, not to mention the expense.

The houses with liners we use modine heaters in them. At the retail store three are heated but I dont keep much heat in them. Its just gotten so expensive to heat the things its cheaper to let some things die and get new plants to sell rather than holding them over. The three houses have four foot exhaust fans I just run in the Spring before I take the plastic off.

I am trying to figure how to keep it warm this winter without spending a lot of money.