Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Growing in Greenhouses & Polytunnels => Topic started by: rowlandwells on November 16, 2017, 20:22
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because we seemed to have a build up of plants or I had to many veg plants in the greenhouse my O/H said they stopping her from growing her flower plants and seeds we decided to buy a small green poly tunnel for the allotment next year [already bought one in ready]
once up we hope we can use it to store our veg plants from the greenhouse prior to planting although we already have the conventional type tunnel's at home I just wondered if anyone has bought the same and how they rated them
I know the tunnel will need good anchorage down the allotment as it gets quite windy down there at times and info much appreciated
edit to clarify title for search purposes
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You will be lucky to get 2-3 years out of it to be honest. It needs to be trenched in, and i would hammer stakes in at the corners and in the middle down each side, screwing the frame to the stakes. The zips tend to be flimsy easily coming out of their (eyes?) so apply wd40 before you zip/unzip. The sewing tends also to come apart very easily. I got rid of my green covering and used the 25mm steel frame as a basis to build my own polytunnel with horticultural polythene. Took some time to build door frames etc but much more secure and warmer than the flimsy green covering.
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Ours lasted six years as it was sited in the shelter of a shed. Trench the cover in properly, put hotspot tape on the frame, make sure it is really taught. Keep the zips well lubricated with vaseline or WD40 to extend their life, make sure nothing rubs on the cover and if a small hole does appear, use repair tape both inside and out on a dry surface.
And enjoy it :D :D
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My green poly cover only lasted 2 years, although the frame is still going strong as a bean support frame :lol:
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ditto what others are saying.
I have had mine five years now. BUT I have blue water pipe on the uprights and arches. All the uprights are tied to wooden supports driven a foot into the ground. I have shelves inside and each shelf leg is in the groung a foot and tied to the pt uprights as well.
The cover lasted a couple of months before the zipped opening broke. So I made a door frame sunk into the ground a foot and put a plywood door on to it.
It lasted like this for three years before the cover eventually gave out altogether, so I purchased a proper uv polythene cover from a polytunnel site, fixed a wooden frame around the base and fixed it. It has gone through quite a lot of windy weather. It helps that one side is my shed and the other side is a compost bin. And the back is near a fence, so quite a sheltered spot.
People on our site that do not do all this, tend to come up to the plot to a twisted metal mess with the cover disappeared.
So, it will work, but you have to really secure it well on many points and know that the green cover will fail within a couple of years.
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as I said we do have some conventional poly tunnels with a visqueen cover obviously this is really strong clear poly sheeting I wasn't quite sure about the green cover but from what your all saying the green poly cover may not be so robust as the visqueen poly tunnel covers
so from your advise it seems the green tunnel needs good anchorage so I'm going to put a scaffolding net over it and anchor it firmly to the ground with extra fixings grease the zippers and put hot spot tape on the bars
I really appreciate your replies that confirmed my concerns about the green tunnel from your experiences so its staying in the box till spring and then its fingers crossed :D
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Sounds perfick! :D :D
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You will need to support the frame as well. The wind will pick up quite strong on an exposed site and bend the frame. Use the water pipe to give extra support to the uprights and arches. Someone on our site did everything except support the frame arches, it was destroyed, bent in two. The metal these companies use is just not up to the job.
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I never gave the hoops a thought snow white so following your advise I've noted that in my garden book when I put it up in spring it mite be worth putting some bracing post's the side of the hoops
as I said I have other tunnels that have quite robust hoops so never had any problems from that and my poly tunnel cover lasted would you believe 15 years
anyway thanks all for the info