Keeping a freak snowstorm off your greenhouses

[Jon]

Well, last Thursday I spent 12 hours outside, shoveling, scrapping and blowing A FOOT OF SNOW OFF MY UNHEATED GREENHOUSES IN DALLAS, TEXAS! We haven't seen anything this bad in 25+ years. Usually we get maybe an inch or two every other year. It took a lot of butt busting work and improvisation to keep them from collapsing. Combine that with a power failure and now you're trying to keep the warm houses warm too with generators and a few thousand feet of orange extension cords.

I was hoping the Yankees among us would chime in how they keep snow off unheated greenhouses/cold frames and what alternatives are out there for getting some heat into cold frames to simply melt the snow. We're kicking around ideas about using thermal mass and heated barrels or water, etc. All of the suggestions may not be practical because we're in the South, but I hate scrambling at the last minute.

What works for you and what doesn't work for you?

And it's supposed to be 65 degrees this Thursday!

[Eric Rohloff]

Jon, We no longer build cold frames. We build greenhouse that we keep the temps low. We would go through the same things your experiencing for a small % of our crop. We finally said no more but I know this isn't practical for everyone. It sure is great to be able to turn the heat up if snow is forcasted. We do plant outside in early spring and this is risky but we have a sprinkler system hooked to our enviromental computer to keep the cold damage to a minimum. This has worked great for the last 4 years.

[Steve]

Hi Jon,

Well not that it helps your situation but when we build cold frames we build them for worse case scenarios. Not what the normal temps are in our area. We use Jaderloon Cold frames and a bow spacing on 4' centers. Unlike most hoop houses Jaderloon uses a truss type structure every 3 or 4 bows this helps stiffen up the structure against heavy Ice, Snow and Wind. So far in the last 30 years we have never had a problem with them (knock on wood) We have seen 3' of wet snow on these hoop houses with no problems. Even though you experience a higher initial cost for the house you will more than make it up in labor savings and additional cash outlay if you have to replace a cheaper lesser built house even one time because of collapse. Remember the time to prepare for disaster is before it happens that includes power. Generators are essential in our line of work... no exceptions.

[Mark Soxman]

I am in Western Pennsylvania and we were forecast to have 4-8" last week. We got 23" in 24 hours. I had 3 fiberglass houses collapse under the weight. They were all old wood frame houses and the fiberglass was paper thin, which is why I used them as cold frames. 1 of the 3 I tried to save using a 400,000 btu torpedo hooked up to natural gas but the snow came down to fast and to heavy for it to be effective. I also have 3 poly houses and all I had to do was run the heaters at 40 degrees and keep the injector fans running. The snow rolled off them. If I did not have heat in them the torpedo would have worked in that situation. I do not know if this investment is feasible for you as you may not have gas lines running to the cold frames. Good luck.

[jeff griff]

jon, here in snowy cleveland ohio we use 2x4's propped up along the center of cold frames... this usually does the trick until mother nature can melt off the snow.

[Walter Gaipa]

I live on Eastern Long Island in NY. We have had up to 27" so far this year in one storm. Not normal for sure. We have installed 1" square tubing in a small concrete footing every 16' on both sides of one greenhouse. This seems to have helped. We generally do not try to melt snow.

We also pull the snow off the roof of free standing houses (30" x 96') with a homemade device. Basically we took a plastic "pusher type" snow shovel, removed the wooden handle and installed a piece of 3/4" PVC conduit to extend the length. While walking along the side of the greenhouse you slide it up the roof and pull the snow off. You actually use the shovel in reverse, by pulling the top back down. It works remarkably well and is very easy and doesn't damage the poly. Depending on the weight of the snow we either tend to the greenhouses during the storm or wait until it is over. I can email anyone a picture if you like.

Our gutter connected houses are well built and we don't worry to much about them. But one idea is to install a hot water line directly under the gutter and divert boiler water during a storm.

Whatever approach you take you have to be progressive and prepare for as much as possible.

[Richard Jones]

Hi Walter - would you post the photo here? I bet everyone would like to see the shovel.

Walter Gaipa said:

I live on Eastern Long Island in NY. We have had up to 27" so far this year in one storm. Not normal for sure. We have installed 1" square tubing in a small concrete footing every 16' on both sides of one greenhouse. This seems to have helped. We generally do not try to melt snow.

We also pull the snow off the roof of free standing houses (30" x 96') with a homemade device. Basically we took a plastic "pusher type" snow shovel, removed the wooden handle and installed a piece of 3/4" PVC conduit to extend the length. While walking along the side of the greenhouse you slide it up the roof and pull the snow off. You actually use the shovel in reverse, by pulling the top back down. It works remarkably well and is very easy and doesn't damage the poly. Depending on the weight of the snow we either tend to the greenhouses during the storm or wait until it is over. I can email anyone a picture if you like.

Our gutter connected houses are well built and we don't worry to much about them. But one idea is to install a hot water line directly under the gutter and divert boiler water during a storm.

Whatever approach you take you have to be progressive and prepare for as much as possible.

[Jeff Warschauer]

Hi,
I don't beleive the solar capture as we might see with water storgae would work. These solar homes have R-Values in the 30's and up
The GH is around R-2 +/- Any heat you would have would be gone in moments due to no recovery and low R-Value.
You might consider a gothic style roof to help snow slide off or heat.

[Walter Gaipa]

Richard, et al,

Hope these pictures come through ok. Snow scraper took about a minute to make and glides on the wet or icy poly and does a nice job of pulling snow dams off greenhouses. A little preventative effort goes a long way.

Good luck!

Richard Jones said:

Hi Walter - would you post the photo here? I bet everyone would like to see the shovel.
Walter Gaipa said:

I live on Eastern Long Island in NY. We have had up to 27" so far this year in one storm. Not normal for sure. We have installed 1" square tubing in a small concrete footing every 16' on both sides of one greenhouse. This seems to have helped. We generally do not try to melt snow.

We also pull the snow off the roof of free standing houses (30" x 96') with a homemade device. Basically we took a plastic "pusher type" snow shovel, removed the wooden handle and installed a piece of 3/4" PVC conduit to extend the length. While walking along the side of the greenhouse you slide it up the roof and pull the snow off. You actually use the shovel in reverse, by pulling the top back down. It works remarkably well and is very easy and doesn't damage the poly. Depending on the weight of the snow we either tend to the greenhouses during the storm or wait until it is over. I can email anyone a picture if you like.

Our gutter connected houses are well built and we don't worry to much about them. But one idea is to install a hot water line directly under the gutter and divert boiler water during a storm.

Whatever approach you take you have to be progressive and prepare for as much as possible.

[Richard Jones]

Thanks for posting these photos Walter. Looks like a very simple but effective tool.

[Bettinger Farms, Inc.]

Walter could you send me a picture also..

Thanks,

Deb Bettiner

Walter Gaipa said:

I live on Eastern Long Island in NY. We have had up to 27" so far this year in one storm. Not normal for sure. We have installed 1" square tubing in a small concrete footing every 16' on both sides of one greenhouse. This seems to have helped. We generally do not try to melt snow.

We also pull the snow off the roof of free standing houses (30" x 96') with a homemade device. Basically we took a plastic "pusher type" snow shovel, removed the wooden handle and installed a piece of 3/4" PVC conduit to extend the length. While walking along the side of the greenhouse you slide it up the roof and pull the snow off. You actually use the shovel in reverse, by pulling the top back down. It works remarkably well and is very easy and doesn't damage the poly. Depending on the weight of the snow we either tend to the greenhouses during the storm or wait until it is over. I can email anyone a picture if you like.

Our gutter connected houses are well built and we don't worry to much about them. But one idea is to install a hot water line directly under the gutter and divert boiler water during a storm.

Whatever approach you take you have to be progressive and prepare for as much as possible.

[Walter Gaipa]

Here you go Deb, I hope you don't need it, but if you do it helps.

Walter

Bettinger Farms, Inc. said:

Walter could you send me a picture also..

Thanks,

Deb Bettiner

Walter Gaipa said:

I live on Eastern Long Island in NY. We have had up to 27" so far this year in one storm. Not normal for sure. We have installed 1" square tubing in a small concrete footing every 16' on both sides of one greenhouse. This seems to have helped. We generally do not try to melt snow.

We also pull the snow off the roof of free standing houses (30" x 96') with a homemade device. Basically we took a plastic "pusher type" snow shovel, removed the wooden handle and installed a piece of 3/4" PVC conduit to extend the length. While walking along the side of the greenhouse you slide it up the roof and pull the snow off. You actually use the shovel in reverse, by pulling the top back down. It works remarkably well and is very easy and doesn't damage the poly. Depending on the weight of the snow we either tend to the greenhouses during the storm or wait until it is over. I can email anyone a picture if you like.

Our gutter connected houses are well built and we don't worry to much about them. But one idea is to install a hot water line directly under the gutter and divert boiler water during a storm.

Whatever approach you take you have to be progressive and prepare for as much as possible.

[Bettinger Farms, Inc.]

Thanks

Alot


Walter Gaipa said:

Here you go Deb, I hope you don't need it, but if you do it helps.

Walter

Bettinger Farms, Inc. said:

Walter could you send me a picture also..

Thanks,

Deb Bettiner

Walter Gaipa said:

I live on Eastern Long Island in NY. We have had up to 27" so far this year in one storm. Not normal for sure. We have installed 1" square tubing in a small concrete footing every 16' on both sides of one greenhouse. This seems to have helped. We generally do not try to melt snow.

We also pull the snow off the roof of free standing houses (30" x 96') with a homemade device. Basically we took a plastic "pusher type" snow shovel, removed the wooden handle and installed a piece of 3/4" PVC conduit to extend the length. While walking along the side of the greenhouse you slide it up the roof and pull the snow off. You actually use the shovel in reverse, by pulling the top back down. It works remarkably well and is very easy and doesn't damage the poly. Depending on the weight of the snow we either tend to the greenhouses during the storm or wait until it is over. I can email anyone a picture if you like.

Our gutter connected houses are well built and we don't worry to much about them. But one idea is to install a hot water line directly under the gutter and divert boiler water during a storm.

Whatever approach you take you have to be progressive and prepare for as much as possible.