[turnpike]

Hi,

I'm thinking about buying or building a polytunnel in my garden but it just occured to me that a few weeks ago a new neighbour had a massive bonfire which left ash all over our windows etc.

Would that not have melted holes in the expensive polytunnel polythene or is it stronger than that?

Cheers,
Carl.

[arugula]

A good quality polytunnel plastic is very strong and can withstand a fair amount of force from high winds even with slight damage.

Your question about hot bonfire ash is a little bit how long is a piece of string, as you'd have all sorts of variables such as how far apart are the tunnel and bonfire, how hot or large are the pieces of ash that may or may not land on the plastic...

We've had bonfires near our homemade polytunnel which has a good quality plastic cover, with no ill effects.

[JayG]

I can only confess to burning some cardboard a little too near my enviromeshed rows of carrots a couple of years go on a slightly breezy evening.........suffice it to say my rows are both shorter and narrower now! 

Arugula is quite right about the difficulties weighing up the chances of your polytunnel being damaged - you say they are "new" neighbours, hopefully they were having a big clear-up and it was a one-off event (with the wind in the wrong direction at the time.) 

[smud6ie]

If you are talking about a slow combustion type fire then nothing much in the way of burning material gets airborne,but a fire burning dried weeds, twigs,brambles etc then it could be a different story.
I have seen burning bits take off,have suffered burns to the scalp,clothing and  tractor seats over the years.
A neighber  erected a large poly tunnel in his field 200 meters away and we never have a fire when the wind is in his direction just in case!
smud6ie

[turnpike]

Cheers.  I've ordered my PT so I guess I'll take my chances.. :-)