Deprivation Hoop House DIY - Any Resources?

I recently was offered the chance of a lifetime- 8 acres of sunny land with nice tree cover from the road at my gf's parents house with no money up front. They were debating on starting to grow but have no idea what they're doing and I have a good amount of experience in indoor growing and general outdoor ag. I get to be the sole owner of the business and they get a % in exchange for the land/power/water/someone on site to do simple tasks so I'm not out there every day

I need to do this low budget at first, debated on autos but outdoor yields seem a little depressing. I would ideally not wait until fall to get a harvest being the licensing is gonna cost me about 3k up front.

I want to DIY a light deprevation hoop house. I figured it would be fairly simple (can automate the roll out with some tech buddies once it's done).

Has anyone built one of these? The engineering seems fairly simple but I haven't found any DIY guides yet. Should just be a standard hoop house with the front/back solid and some way to roll down an additional layer made of some sort of super solid light blocking material? If so setting up some electric motors to automate rolling it down should be cake.

You should just stick to something small, and work your way up, rather than failing miserably somehow doing a large scale grow on 8 acres "low budget" and, while I dont know where you live, most places the licensing is a little harder than 3k... I believe the application fee for a MJ related buisness in MA was like 10-25k depending on the type, just a non refundable application fee... Not mention any dealings with local zoning issues, its way more involved than you make it out to be, automating the roll up (which has been done, and there are plenty of solutions on market now) is the least of your worries.

Maybe try growing a few autos and photos outdoors, and deal with some of natures native diseases and pests and gain some experience, otherwise you'll fail on a large scale potentially ruining a future opportunity and possibly your relationship with your girl.

Luckily they have no actual money or anything involved, just loaning space. I figure a single light dep hoophouse - maybe 20x50 would be enough space to get started.

I just know that I can buy a used hoop house frame for 1-2k and replace the cloth/wiggle wire and be good to go. I'm more wondering about a way to automate rolling out the blackout poly layer. Doing it manually just like I would for a roll up side hoop house should be simple enough but I don't want to drive out there twice a day to do it.

Also I'd want to keep it dual layered- a rollout poly for blackout plus the lower layer. It gets hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. If I want a chance at four season I'll have to have AC/heaters in there eventually.

(I spent a few years working on various organic vegetable farms and ranches after college)

Also- in Oklahoma. The application is 2.5k plus a $25 background check and whatever the local ordinance/inspection process is. You have to get a "certificate of compliance" from the local government but as this is county/rural land it just has to be out of site of the road if it's "outdoors"... not sure if a hoop house with a fixed frame is still outdoors or not.

Sorry for the horrible paint drawing but I'm too lazy for photoshop. I'm just trying to figureout a way to simply automate moving the fabric from the down position (orange) to the top position where the fabric will be fastened with wiggle wire.

1. It needs to include rolling up the fabric as it goes so it's not hanging in the way during the day period.
2. It needs to be securely fastened in the up and down positions to avoid wind damage/light coming in.
3. Weather tight.

The simplest thing in my mind is to have it locked into some kind of track. The overlap of a track over the edges should help with wind & prevent light leaks. As it rolls up the track guides it- it doesn't need to be fully locked in...the track will probably be sheet metal or plywood- something easy to bend to the curve of the hoop house.

I've seen kits for this that run 7-10k just for the mechanism to automate the hoop house. That seems nuts to me?

this dude has the best and easiest I’ve seen. He’s got it on some kind of clothes line so he can just pull it back and forth

Talk to @Zeez and if he doesnt want to help you, just google search and pony up the money for any greenhouse cover rollup solution and hook up to a timer or arduino... Or there are plent that are all in one just plug it, set it and go... But we've got members who've done what you want to do, just use the search and read up on it. Start here for sure though...


Cheers

Hi, I built my own greenhouse and am glad to help.

Here is a thread I did on the construction.

Adding light dep is very similar to the roll up sides that I use and its on my list for next year. I wanted to get a handle on greenhouse growing before going to the next step. My greenhouse is fully automated too. Glad to help there too.

Macncheesehaze said:

this dude has the best and easiest I’ve seen. He’s got it on some kind of clothes line so he can just pull it back and forth

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Okay that is ingenious and way easier to DIY than my original design.

SpawnOfVader said:

Okay that is ingenious and way easier to DIY than my original design.

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That would work if it were in your backyard or something but you would still have to drive out there twice daily to close it in after pulling it shut(where he puts the wood on to prevent wind from blowing it and having any light leaks,, and then again to take off the wood off and pull it back.
I think zeezs' solution would work far better than that for your situation.
Maybe a combination of the two, with the tarp having enough overhang, and weights on the corners to prevent blowing, the overhang hopefully making no leaks easier. Then you can possibly get two winches, and have them automated from a remote system to control with phone, (and camera feed to be sure things went smoothly..)

My greenhouse has an extra hoop +-18" from each end for overlap on the light dep cover to prevent leaks.

The thing to keep in mind is that you only need to eliminate light for a few hours in the early morning and a few more in the evening.These are time periods where little cooling or ventilation should be needed. Using a black tarp as the guy in the video did is a rally bad idea. It's like a huge solar collector. Light dep material is white on the outside and black on the inside. It's not cheep and you can't always find it in the exact size you need.

I built my own. It’s not hard. If you hit up Jim at Humboldt Lightdep PLC. He’s super helpful and will send you lots of info that’s super helpful.
I bought my tarp from him and he sent me plans for the hoop house.

we are off grid. We use these roll up dep covers. We had automated ones but found them less than 100% reliable. so someone had to go out and check on them every day anyway, so we just put the chain pulls back on and do it manually. We manage to harvest 2 crops a year this these. we use "panda plastic" it's white on one side and black on the other. Cheap hoop's usually fail to stand up over time. a good hoop house will pay for itself in one season. If you are truly serious about this you should seek some financial assistance/partner with funds, to help you get off the ground. You need a short term loan, 1 or 2 years to get started. You should look long term, we didn't make any profit the first couple years. Best of luck.

doublejj said:

we are off grid. We use these roll up dep covers. We had automated ones but found them less than 100% reliable. so someone had to go out and check on them every day anyway, so we just put the chain pulls back on and do it manually. We manage to harvest 2 crops a year this these. we use "panda plastic" it's white on one side and black on the other. Cheap hoop's usually fail to stand up over time. a good hoop house will pay for itself in one season. If you are truly serious about this you should seek some financial assistance/partner with funds, to help you get off the ground. You need a short term loan, 1 or 2 years to get started. You should look long term, we didn't make any profit the first couple years. Best of luck.
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I appreciate the advice, that's a nice looking setup! I tentatively have like 20k from a buddy that wants to invest in my business with very favorable terms/repayment. I'm hesitant about the option to take investors in exchange for a % of the LLC instead of just loans but it's definitely something I can look into.

I'm for sure serious about getting into commercial- just debating on if it's this year or next. I would really love to get some property of my own instead of leasing, I have a mostly finished tiny home that I could move onto the land- I'd just need to get power out there and some sort of sewage system (possibly eco-based/composting toilet temporarily). The property I have available for lease is ~30 minutes away and I'm gonna have to keep working a full time job so it will be a PITA.

norcalreppin77 said:

Auto Light Dep Retrofit Kit — Humboldt Light Dep

Upgrade your existing greenhouse by quickly attaching our Auto Light Dep Retrofit Kit & be on your way to harvesting multiple times a year! A great inexpensive way to get started with light dep!

www.humboldtlightdep.com

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I was looking at these- are they something you've used?

Rough math- I can get a used 20x50 hoop house for about 1-2k (rough shape but good frame)
New cloth- 2-300
Blackout poly - 4-500

Lets say 2-3k to be safe and then add 25% for misc parts/replacing wiggle wire/whatever so $2500-$3750.

Add in that kit and 5.5-7K+ shipping for a single 20x50 space...that's totally in my price range.

No need to worry about labor for setting it up, I've got a ton of friends with some level of skillset/volunteers.

SpawnOfVader said:

I was looking at these- are they something you've used?

Rough math- I can get a used 20x50 hoop house for about 1-2k (rough shape but good frame)
New cloth- 2-300
Blackout poly - 4-500

Lets say 2-3k to be safe and then add 25% for misc parts/replacing wiggle wire/whatever so $2500-$3750.

Add in that kit and 5-6K+ shipping for a single 20x50 space...that's totally in my price range.

No need to worry about labor for setting it up, I've got a ton of friends with some level of skillset/volunteers.

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My buddy used them and he liked them. I never got around to buying one.

norcalreppin77 said:

My buddy used them and he liked them. I never got around to buying one.

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My worry is that the person I have local that would actually close the hoop house is unlikely to be super reliable and there is no internet provider out there so unless I can get an IP camera with a carrier with service I'm unlikely to be able to check their work.... doubling up with an automated system seems like the fix.

You can rent a porta potty for about $100 a month with weekly service. Just place it in a location that is out of sight of your hoophouse. We did that the first year and then bought a 'Natures Head" composting toilet ($1000) and we love it. Best of luck


Natures Head toilet....

a few years ago I pulled some funds from my retirement account to finance a grow for a friend/grower. The first 2 years we rented a place, fortunately it came with a light dep hoop house. We made enough profit to buy the land next door and put our own greenhouses up. Paid that off in 2 years and I used his farm as collateral for me to purchase 20 acres and I put 2 30x60 greenhouses. so over the last 6-7 years we have been able to buy and payoff 2 farms, each with 2 light dep greenhouses, all financed off the profit from the first 2 years rental. Like I said a greenhouse should pay for itself in a year or 2. Best of luck