I built my first hoop house I’m wondering if I should add front/back panels or leave them open for ventilation? I’m in Northern Nevada, the sun can get pretty intense in the summer.
Also any recommendations on plastic? I need to find something that will hold up under the sun and wind. I was looking into a “clear” poly tarp (it’s got white strings running along it). I wasn’t sure if it’d allow the sun in enough
I’d go for a “matte” plastic, one that you can’t see through, it breaks the light, creating a softer light that reaches the leaves in a more even manner.
You wanna avoid hard light creating hard shadows.
Maybe also look into a hardy low covercrop like clover you can sow all around to create shade over the soil to slow down evaporation while enriching the soil with nitrogen and mulch when it naturally dies back in winter and seeds itself again.
I will check that plastic out, thanks! The ground under the house is awful, compacted an mostly backfill rocks. I was thinking of probably growing in fabric pots an adding extra dirt inside the house for stability of the plants
Depending on how hot and full exposure you are there you may want to just use a shade cloth and no plastic. They are available in a wide range of thickness. Maybe 30-40%.
Fabric pots can be challenging to keep moist in hot dry climates. People tend to elevate them to allow for runoff in those settings.
Best of luck to you🍀
The covercrop will slowly create new rich soil, all you have to do is sow it. 
For compacted rocky soil I’d definitely recommend to sow alfalfa and buckwheat, they both make lots of minerals available to other plants once they die back.
They have very deep taproots that improve drainage.
It will all improve the soil for your cannabis, year after year it’ll get better and better.
I here to see this one. I need to make one.
Wow thats a bad ass little green house lol dashitz lol
Awesome build, and lucky timing for me as I was thinking about building a hoop house this year for one of my beds to address intense rainfall.
My thought was to hoop the bed, and then cover the upper portion only to redirect the majority of the downfall but I also worry that it may cause other problems I’m not thinking about… one worry would me humidity build and mould / rot.
See where I’m at we get humid wet cold conditions with a sporadic frost that comes in our Oct harvest window.I want to do a hoop house to cover plants almost the exact same size as this one for 3 to 4 plants as to help them finish a little longer and last to mid oct maybe later Oct.I’m thinking maybe use that Butterfly net type of cloth to just cover them up and not hold in as much humidity as I would imagine plastic would so I don’t make a PM / Bud rot Petri dish out of the house.
Aloha @Heather420
Greenhouses are primarily intended to keep in heat - probably unnecessary but I’m just guessing at your weather.
Shade cloth may be though 
Having the fence there helps reduce wind gusts but I’d recommend stiffening the frame itself. A stake at each corner & a board on each side tying the stakes together at the tops.
Plastic over the top will help if you get dust storms or rain. There’s special greenhouse film & there’s standard plastic sheeting from the hardware store aka painter’s plastic. The 3.5-4 mil clear works ok but the UV will destroy it in a season. (Ie plastic debris cleanup on aisle 420).
Check out as many examples as you can.
I’d definitely leave the ends open- it’ll be sweaty in there & that can lean to mold problems. Night time condensation too.
Fabric pots will dry out too fast- white plastic grow bags or a SIP(aka earthbox) will save a lot of water/time. A raised bed would be fine too, but again the climate may require mulch between plantings.
Following along as I hope to have my own greenhouse one day soon. Sending positive vibes for your grow
Thanks for all the suggestions! I will definitely look into a sunshade instead of plastic, maybe I’ll get some at the end of summer when it starts getting colder if need be.
I didn’t think planting right into the bed would be ideal because of the shity soil below. I couldn’t till it with all the rocks. I did find some diys for building a sip so I’ll probably do that!
I’m looking at sunshades on Amazon an I see they block different percentages of the sun. I’m guessing I want one that allows the most light in like 30/40%? The bed gets sun from about 10am until sunset
When I was in Sacramento I used 80% black because that was what I could get but I would have liked to try 40% white; I did read some reviews that said the white mesh degraded quicker & started crumbling after 4-5 years whereas a decade for the black. 
The plastic is only needed for preventing rain or heavy dust when the plants are in flower at the 2nd half of their journey. Rain in the beginning phase is fine.
