Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: shokkyy on April 13, 2012, 22:40
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I got a bit carried away this year, okay every year, and I've got loads of peppers, aubergines and tomatoes that really need to be potted on. I've been putting a lot of them out every day and bringing back in at night, but it's getting a bit tedious and I'd really like to get them into the tunnel. I'm about to knock up some pipe hoops on my tunnel beds and I can cover those with fleece, so do you think I'd be safe to start leaving some of this stuff overnight in the tunnel, with the fleece protection as well? I don't want to risk setting stuff back too much, but I kind of wonder what the point is of having the tunnel if I can't put stuff out earlier than I would without the tunnel.
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You can plant tender stuff outside with no protection in June,so the tunnels allows you to do it from end April/May depending on the weather......however April is forcast to be colder than average this year :(
On a cold frosty night I think you'd be pushed to keep the plants above 10C even with fleece. Have you been checking what your minimum temperatures have been lately? Last night was 0C in my greenhouse so there's no chance of my plants going out there overnight for a while ::)
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Hard to be sure about current overnight temps - and you'll understand why if you saw my thread about my problems with min/max thermometers :)
Normal last frost date for my area is early May. Last year I had all tender plants outside by the first week in May. This spring is obviously a little colder than average, but my local forecast shows quite low overnight temps from now until Sunday and then Monday night is supposed to be warmer. The long-term forecast beyond that looks more about rain and wind than low temps. Maybe what I'll do is put some of my spare plants in the tunnel and fleece from Monday on and see how they get on. And invest in a min/max thermometer that actually works.
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It's just been snowing here this morning. :(
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It's just been snowing here this morning. :(
:ohmy: :( :(
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oh good lord, and I was feeling sorry for myself because we've had a lot of rain :)
I can never figure out how we keep getting these water shortages. All through this last winter we've had an awful lot of rain, and the water table was so high there were permanent puddles and full ditches all over the land where I keep my horse. I do sometimes wonder how much is actually due to lack of rain and how much is due to increasing demand from expanding population.
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I recently got a polytunnel, I had tomato and french bean plants coming a treat in there,then over one night ,which was frosty, I lost about 2/3ds of them,maybe it was a one off, but it seems they dont protect against an unexpected frost.
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oh good lord, and I was feeling sorry for myself because we've had a lot of rain :)
I can never figure out how we keep getting these water shortages. All through this last winter we've had an awful lot of rain, and the water table was so high there were permanent puddles and full ditches all over the land where I keep my horse. I do sometimes wonder how much is actually due to lack of rain and how much is due to increasing demand from expanding population.
The rain must have all emptied out on your area before getting to us Shokky :ohmy: :ohmy: