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Re: Advice sought- row cover structures (long.hopefully not too boring)

I deleted the Gardens and OGL from the reply list, as i am not familiar
with those groups.  Margaret, you may forward this message to those
lists if you so choose.

Margaret M Daniels wrote:
>  I built a trapezoidal cylindrical frame about 25
> ft. long out of PVC pipe, anchored with rebar (I don't have graphics here,
> but for anyone who doesn't know what a trapezoidal cylinder looks like,
> the cross-section of the frame looks like a trapezoid, something like
> this, if I could only raise that middle line segment higher: /-\),which
> enclosed the fences. The frame is about 4 ft. high and 10 ft. wide at the
> bottom.

I started to do something similar during my last season in
Massachusetts.  My intention was to keep the plants warm, so i didn't
finish the experiment after i moved to the tropics.  I may try again for
pest-control purposes.

What i wanted to do was to build a frame out of wooden stakes, and cut
and sew plastic sheets to fit over the frame like a fitted bedsheet. 
Even without finishing the project, i sensed that the wind would be a
problem.  I had dealt with the wind with the trellises by anchoring them
with guy-wires (sissal cord) when necessary, but i don't know if
guy-wires would hold up against the wind blowing into 24 square feet of
plastic.  Sorry, i don't have a report on this, but i thought you might
like to know you're not the only one.  My new place is well sheltered
from the wind, so my idea won't be well challenged here.

> Oh, before I continue, you might ask why I didn't just lay the cover on
> top of the plants! My limited experience of the previous year is that
> these vining plants don't like the cover directly on top of them. They
> grew some, but only really took off when I took the covers off.

I did this with the tomatoes in the fall (after dismounting the vines
from the trellis).  Since they weren't growing *anyway* at that time of
year, my only interest was in prolonging the harvest.

> To continue...I then covered the frame with chicken wire (actually, my
> first experiment didn't use the wire,but the covers then easily tore in
> the wind),

As i said, i intended to use plastic, not fabric.  I didn't anticipate
that the plastic itself would tear, but it's something to think about. 
Except... i don't need plastic any more.  Ok, it's something for other
readers to think about.
-- 
@->-`-,----------------------------------------------+
|  Cousin Ricky      USDA zone 11, Virgin Islands    |
|  rcallwo@uvi.edu   formerly zone 6, Massachusetts  |
+----------------------------------------------------+
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