Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: radster on January 04, 2012, 21:50
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Hello allotoment owners...i m a bit lucky i got a big garden;) and decided i had enough of sainsburys.
I bought my house last year and maybe by luck me and my wife although useless at farming, we managed to have enough salad,runerbeans,tomatos,courgetes to eat and give away to neighbours .
this year we couldnt wait to do it again but the ''sun'' didnt shine in lewisham;) some sun some cold some hot .. not a great garden
i bought a polytunnel yesterday, 6mx3m built it and tomorrow i ll cover and secure it .
Looking on internet,but cant find,... is there a diary of what to start growing each month in polytunnel?
like a small diary with all the seeds that can start fitting let say in january then february? thankyou rad
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I put up a polytunnel last year, which by coincidence was also 6m X 3m :)
I bought myself a little book called How to Grow Food in your Polytunnel, and I've found this very helpful in telling me what I can grow in the tunnel and what to sow/harvest each month.
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thanks mate, have seen these books though wondered of a short list, maybe on internet...not as trying to save a 10 quid, but makes it easier to see/plan ahead
how did you get on with it.. better than the free and in to the mercy of the weather? was it one of these with green cover?
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You might find there is a separate section for poly growing on the site. You might get a lot more helpful answers there.
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I only put it up last autumn, so haven't had a chance to try it properly yet. I did put all my tomato and chilli/sweet pepper plants in there when the weather started to get cold, which meant I could let all the fruit ripen on the plants instead of trying to do it on windowsills, and that made a huge difference to my crop. I also grew some winter lettuce in there and put some strawberry plants up in there to give me an earlier crop this year. It's amazing how much warmer it is in there than outside, far more difference than I ever had in my old greenhouse.
Yes, it does have a green cover, and some little panels down each side that you can open to give ventilation. I've been glad of those panels because even in the autumn/winter it does get humid in there.
I tried googling for a polytunnel calendar, and I've just found a shortlist taken from the book I was talking about :) Try this - http://www.polytunnelgardening.co.uk/2011/02/
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thank you. yes mine s got 2 zip doors and 3 windows on each one... dad had come from abroad and very old...seeing this, i hope he ll be tempted to come back again in summer.
i will look to find the polytunels site now as the moderator gonna pull my ears soon
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I'm really glad you asked this now, because on that page I gave you the link to I've found another link pointing to some really good polytunnel growing guides on the FirstTunnels website and I've never spotted them before. It's here - www.firsttunnels.co.uk/guides.asp. There's some very useful info on there.
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thanks mate...
i managed to apply the plastic today and made it like a castle all around...having read on forums that polytunnels tend to fly to the next neighbour for a tea or cofy with the first opportunity i applied 20 bags of sand on top of skirtings etc , so no coffe for my PT.
plastic a bit rubish installment ties and the zip door, i dont think will last a week . though will see
great that link, i printed it , now if i need to fit carrots i can googlecarrot;) and let the great god decide
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How to grow food in your polytunnel is a good book.
I got it free with my Tunnel a few months back. Its a complete guide, includes the vegetables which do well in Polytunnels and walks you though all the little things
you need to do.
I would also consider buying "how to grow winter vegetables". The reason being is
after September you start to loose momentum and think you can't grow anything in
your tunnel. However this isn't true. You can grow lots of leafy vegetables from Kale to
Rocket. You can even grow these outside if you get cold-frames in temp as cold as -15.