Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Using wire for frost cloth hoops? Need advice

JRinPA · February 16, 2021

Sorry I just saw this.

3/16" hi tensile steel hoops is what I buy. They don't rust much, I can't say if they are galvanized, but only rust if left on the ground over winter, or the parts stuck in the ground.
64" x100 hoops is $44 this year.
76" x 100 is $50. This a produce supply place, and that would not include shipping.

64" is what I have used, and to stretch them to 4ft wide bed, I need to ziptie a pair of them together to make a big hoop that can be wide yet sunk deep.

If you have good tilth I would buy them/make them longer, and just sink them deeper when you don't need the width. My brother ordered some this year and I advised the longer version.

If you only need a narrow span, you lay the hoops in at angle to the bed edge to retain height but decrease width.

I usually use two crossed and ziptied at each row end, I call it castling, so I can pull the row cover fairly tight without pulling that farthest hoop back toward me.

February 16, 2021	#10
JRinPA Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: SE PA Posts: 963	Sorry I just saw this. 3/16" hi tensile steel hoops is what I buy. They don't rust much, I can't say if they are galvanized, but only rust if left on the ground over winter, or the parts stuck in the ground. 64" x100 hoops is $44 this year. 76" x 100 is $50. This a produce supply place, and that would not include shipping. 64" is what I have used, and to stretch them to 4ft wide bed, I need to ziptie a pair of them together to make a big hoop that can be wide yet sunk deep. If you have good tilth I would buy them/make them longer, and just sink them deeper when you don't need the width. My brother ordered some this year and I advised the longer version. If you only need a narrow span, you lay the hoops in at angle to the bed edge to retain height but decrease width. I usually use two crossed and ziptied at each row end, I call it castling, so I can pull the row cover fairly tight without pulling that farthest hoop back toward me. Last edited by JRinPA; February 16, 2021 at 03:49 AM.