What’s a hoophouse?

Hoophouses, or high tunnels, are passive solar greenhouses (meaning they are usually unheated except by the sun). They are typically made with steel bows and covered with polyethylene film.

Hoophouses allow for year-round production of cold-tolerant vegetables, and significantly extended seasons for warm-season vegetables, especially in conjunction with row-cover systems. They also protect crops from wind and rain, preventing stress and reducing pressure from many fungal pathogens

Why Hoophouses?

Food is the foundation of our lives. It is the best way to invest in the world we envision, and to connect to the people and places around us.

Hoophouses and high tunnels allow the networks we create for food production and local distribution to continue year-round, and make our farms more resilient and profitable. They help our local food economies to form a solid foundation for local economies in general.

What’s the difference between a hoophouse and a greenhouse?

Most often, hoophouses are for growing plants in the ground, and greenhouses are for growing plants on tables — but this is far from universal.

Hoophouses are usually built as temporary structures with no concrete footings and a flexible polyethylene covering. Greenhouses on the other hand are usually built with concrete footings, often a concrete pad, and with solid walls of glass or polycarbonate.