disastrous poly tunnel encounters

 

got a phone call yesterday from my lotty committee to say my 2 week old poly tunnel had not survived the little bit of wind we got through the night, made my way down there to find some kind person had weighted it down so i didn't need to go on the walk around trying to find it, but 4 cucumber plants destroyed and numerous varieties of toms gone too, I've since emailed the company who i brought it from, stating my displeasure at their merchandise that was apparently indestructible , (which at £51 i thought i had bagged the bargain of the century) they have kindly offered free return postage and on receipt of a tracking number will issue a full refund, in the mean time myself and mum have been trawling through gum tree looking for greenhouses, i already have a little 6 by 4ft on the plot but that's no where near big enough for the amount of plants i need to grow.....luckily ive found one second hand 8ft by 6ft only 2 panes of glass missing and we will be dismantling and taking down tomorrow so bye bye poly tunnels for me from now once bitten twice shy id much rather replace a few panes of glass than a whole poly tunnel, .... we have a nice clearing that is un workable under the plum and cherry trees which should be big enough to place right along side our current greenhouse ....how does everyone else find poly tunnels vs greenhouses??? I've attached some pics of before when we first got the plot in January to where we are now and also a pic of the doomed poly tunnel ....actually i cant because the file sizes are too large  but my web link is on profile where you can see them in gallery

Hi Kellycontina
I had plots on your site for a number of years. It is notorious for poly tunnels and greenhouses blowing away or completely disintegrating - even an old air raid shelter was blown off the plots in the past. No plastic poly tunnel will withstand those plots unless you dig in the cover a foot or more deep and anchor the frame down well. The polycarbonate ones just buckle really badly then all the glass drops out. The glass greenhouses do stand up better - but it is horrible inheriting a plot where the glass has broken over time and you constantly have to watch for broken glass. You can get a couple of years use from a plastic tunnel but just weighting the cover down will not be good enough. I hope you manage to find something suitable. I know it is really disheartening to lose your plants. A flying tunnel from the opposite end of the site to my plot knocked down and uprooted one of my new trees. I am surprised no one warned you of the wind when you put it up. At least it is early enough in the year for your plants to recover or to grow more.

Essentially polytunnels are just enormous kites wanting to take off at the slightest bit of wind     To start off with ours was weighted down with a few concrete slabs but upended itself during some gales. We've since weighted it down with more slabs (on end rather than flat, so the weight per square inch is greater) and since then we've not had any problems at all and it's been up for at least 2 years.

Our site is more sheltered, but even then we're the only ones out of 80 plots to have a polytunnel.

I had a small 'polytunnel' which lasted three years at our exposed, windy site. I have just had to replace it after the plastic and frame joints perished. It cost £50 and, unlike all the sheds at our site, never got broken into or tampered with as I used it for storage as well as planting.
I did dig in the plastic - wiser folk on the site, back filled the ttrenches with bagged earth so the bags could be removed and the plastic cover then taken off during the winter.
The velcro was the first thing to go - one of the door roll holders dropped off in the first couple of months. But with running repairs such as stitching up one side of the door and screwing in a few tent pegs and lashing some rope across towards the end, it did very well all things considered. I hope the replacement fares just as well.

I can sympathize wth losing seedlings as I also had a tent-like affair which firstly did not protect the seedlings from frost, making them all vaporize overnight. The second lot got blown to the other side of my plot and the tent was then withdrawn from use.

Hi Snowdrops. Good to say hello again. I have been here a while now. I will send you a pm.