This topic contains 21 replies, has 10 voices, and was last updated by Cecilia Fletcher 7 years, 5 months ago.
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Others on my allotments have polytunnels – they all have to visit twice a day to open the ends…
I opted for a low cost polycarbonate greenhouse – less cost than most polytunnels and a pig to put up but I have water buts to take water from the gutters and automatic window openers to help control the temperature. Not perfect but I sometimes work away from home so need somethign that can be sustained without daily visits let alone twice a day. Only went up this Easter so very experimental.
If you want very deep beds it might be worth considering a Solar Tunnel – they have straight sides so there would be good access right to the edges of your tunnel. The other advantage is that the polythene isn’t buried as the frame is attached to ground anchors, this means roots have access outside the tunnel around the edge which would save on watering. Personally I love them – somewhere nice to sit with a cup of tea when it’s raining! They really add to the choice of crops you can grow and extend the season by weeks either end.
Julie
Tomatoes do much better early on with rain water rather than tap water and I’ve found that if you have 100 gallons worth of butts linked to a downpipe from your roof, apart from in drought years like last year, you pretty much have what you need for up to 20 plants.
The refilling is most efficient if the rain is heavy, so you really want heavy showers like we’ve been having this past week rather than a steady drizzle. Four hours of heavy rain one day this week refilled a half-empty 50 gallon butt and more.
If you’re really serious 200 gallons of storage would be great, but you start racking up bills unless you have a friendly tradesman/woman frined who can rustle you up something for peanuts.
Hello Julie
I bought a single glazed low cost ( £329 ! ) polycarbonate greenhouse for the allotment. A Palram 10 x 6 silver harmony from B&Q..
You need at least 2 people to erect it ( one needs to be about 6ft 4 inches tall to safely reach the top bits) . It’s a total
######## ! to erect especially if it windy. I have yet to make the door fit properly. However it is solid and does the job and it was cheap
BUT !!!!!!!!!!
The noise ! Every panel cracks like thunder even in the slightest breeze 24 hours a day. That ok on the allotment site but in a garden near the house and neighbours??.
You have been warned!
Richard BamburyYes, I collect the the water in the curved gutters too & give it back to the raised beds, when I want too!
Yes I curved it, yes completely mad I know, but a lot of fun too, the cover was easy, esp when only tension it on a very hot day(definitely don’t try on a cold or cool day). There are so many manufacturers out there, some are helpfull some are rude. I chose http://www.robinsonpolytunnels.co.uk/ & delt with Mr Robinson the whole time. I found he helped me every step of the way.
One clever thing I did by mistake was to buy one of his min-polytunel 8’x4′ which I can move around my raised beds, it teaches you so much about putting the big one up.
One bit of advice I read was to put up the biggest poly tunnel you can ‘manage’ & the next bit I would give is prepare for some ‘HOT BEDS’ too.
Seeing Charles’s Hot Bed in his greenhouse is just amazing, the freeheat proporgating & you get some compost 2 years down the road too.
Yes it’s worth-it & can be beautiful too!
a donf’ go for it
Hi Julie
The main reason for the greenhouse choice was that it gives 100% light transmission which stops seedlings going
“leggy”. Twin glazed polycarbonate and the cheaper range of of green coloured poly tunnels don’t appear to have 100% light.
Another consideration was possible vandalism on the allotment site. Polycarbonate is virtually indestructible.
I agree that £300+ is not really cheap. There were many second hand ,even free, houses and tunnels on eBay , preloved and such web sites. However all had “buyer to dismantle and collect” as a condition and always seemed to be 300 miles away
I decided to bite the bullet and spend the money.Two easily handled packages arrived at the front door .Easily got to the site in car and on roof rack and being new had a guarantee.
I am considering sealing the glazing panels to the frame but it seems a fiddly job and would need a lot of sealer. I don’t think the noise would be much reduced as most of the noise appears to be produced by the panels flexing rather than rattling in the frame.
Good LuckThe simplest way is simply to have the butts lined up underneath where the water comes off the roof – if it’s an allotment, you don’t actually need a gutter – it can simply just fall straight into the butts.
With a gutter in place, you need someone handy to attach a side arm to the vertical downpipe which siphons off water through a tube into one butt which you then connect to all the others through interconnecting pipes (that bit is so simple even I can do it!) You can buy the necessary from a place like Wickes or B&Q but if you employ a tradesperson, they will buy it for you.
Ours is rigged up to collect water from the roof of one side of the house and we have two butts totalling just under 100 gallons under a carport.
I have just spent a lot of money on water butts – only to find that on ebay the big 1m square liquid storage tanks have come down in price significantly around £35 for 1000 liters – only problem is moving them if you dont have a van or pick up truck.
Just to say thanks for this idea Bluebell. I’ve been looking into a longer term water storage arrangement for the allotment. A 1000l tank linked via syphon hoses to some 200l butts could be the ticket. Still some thinking to do but thankyou as this may save much hard earnt money!
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