The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: Mo on November 01, 2010, 07:59:50 am
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We cheated and had ours built for us - many reasons why but it was worth it in the end.
It took about half a day from before to after and we've been letting our imaginations run wild for a few days before putting our sensible heads back on and looking at our plans for it.
It's just so exciting to have it there!
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Great stuff, I love mine. But be careful , they are addictive and you will want more!
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We hope to get one next year - so we'll be looking for tips!!
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been swithering for months about getting one of those, the build service is an added bonus, any more details, did u have to prepair the ground? etc.
mandy
ps what size is it?
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It looks really good.
I'm also wanting a polytunnel, but where do you buy them, which type is best, how do you prepare the ground? etc etc etc ;D ??? ;D
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Blue Daisy, I use First Tunnels as you can design your own on line to what you actually require and they do storm braces and irrigation etc. On their site you can watch how to construct videos and loads of advise and help. They also do different covers, doors etc I do highly recomend them. Mine has stood on Shetland now with gale force winds and no problems apart from the ones I have caused ::)
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Ooh thanks hermit
off to have a look now ;)
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Ours is a 4x6m from Haygrove - we liked that there was no messing about working out the price, no working out what bits you need and how much each bit costs.
There was no prep necessary - our land is flat so that's a bonus - but no need for trenches and all that - the whole thing is anchored in and the plastic kind of ziplocks on. Price also includes the nifty bits at the side that you wind up to let air circulate and control temperatures - there's mesh to keep the bugs out.
You pay for the build but, as I say, it was well worth it to us.
Would write more but gotta dash.
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Tunnel envy :-\
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I can recommend First Tunnels we have got one of their commercial tunnels, built it up ourselves (with a little help from a hired digger and OH always wanted to be a Bob the Builder...) but ours has been up for 3.5 years now and no damage at all yet. (Fingers crossed!)
However, even though the Polythene is dug into the ground and also some small hole wire mesh dug in too at the sides we have a vole problem, they just dig deeper... So I have to pre-germinate everything (which I do anyway), but am now in the process of mesh lining all my raised beds in it... just something to look out for! I planted autumn onions to try... but most of them are eaten now.
Also I am not sure a mesh for ventilation is such a good idea - you want bees/bumble bees butterflies etc etc in your tunnel to pollinate all your toms, beans, aubergines etc etc.... not possible if they can't get in!
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we have plans for a PT next year and currently have a couple of pigs in fertilising and levelling the ground - hopefully anyway!
can anyone guide me on what kind of prices I'll be looking at - both for build it yourself and also to get a company to build?
many thanks
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There are plenty of sites to look at but mine is 35x14 feet , eight foot high with high sides, a centre partition , irrigation , staging, crop bars, snap down polythene etc It cost two thousand four years ago but the land cost that much to prepare as well cause we built a bund around it and layed a concrete base for the frame. If I knew what size to put the photos I would put one on here of the inside. I will try.
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Also I am not sure a mesh for ventilation is such a good idea - you want bees/bumble bees butterflies etc etc in your tunnel to pollinate all your toms, beans, aubergines etc etc.... not possible if they can't get in!
The side vents are for additional ventilation and to enhance temperature control. The mesh just helps to keep out an invasion of undesirables. There are doors at both ends...I'm assuming all your bees and butterflies use the doors in yours?
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I struck lucky - got mine secondhand for £100 from a garden centre that wasn't using it anymore (about 35ft x 15ft), and the cover (interwoven opaque so nice and strong) was at an auction being stomped on cos no-one knew what the untidy big bundle of plastic was - I got that for £10.
;D
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Well done! :)
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whats more important for the site of the polytunnel? we had the site fenced in a while back, its the only bit of level ground thats polytunnel shaped, then i read that its supposed to lie east-west to catch the sun, but this site lies north-south. does it matter? and which side is the strongest to the wide - long side on?
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North/South will give you slightly lower temperatures than East/West because of the path of the sun.
Do you get a lot of wind? ;D If it's possible I think they advise to have the length of the tunnel facing the prevailing winds.
Ours is N/S because that was the best position for us.
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Ours is N/S and is on a bit of a slope....but that's how it was when we moved in and we're sure as hell not gonna change it ;D It works a treat except we seem to have billions of slugs around these parts AND Cabbage Whites :P So, this year I'm hoping to get one of those net tunnels to put along side in an attempt to prevent the caterpillar damage and also lay seige to the slugs by putting down/watering in Nematodes. Does anyone use this method? ???
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I have £130 'saved' towards my polytunnel - how much should i be working towards in everyones view?
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My one 35ft x 15ft with irrigation ,staging, crop bars etc cost two grand and I could easily double that with ground preperation, bund building,fencing, soil, raised beds after that! My ground preperation is a bit exceptional though being up here and next to the sea :o. Look on websites for prices for the tunnels but you will have to decide on what you need besides that yourself and get quotes...ie , do you need raised beds or can you plant direct, what are you going to fix your tunnel to, dig in or as mine is fixed to a concrete base, what shelter do you need? mine has a full height bund around it and a pallisade fence! Lots of expenses can be spread over time as in irrigation and staging, pots etc. You can save a lot by making your own seed trays etc from things you find. Loo roll holders make good seed pots, pop bottles when chopped in half make good mini propergators.My poly looks like a recycling yard so if your not one of those who like yellow pots for yellow peppers etc ::) the expense of a polytunnel can be initial.
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i already have my veggie plot plus a couple of greenhouses so the basics are there. have 2 pigs in the area that i'll be siteing it to break up the gorund and then a pal has a mini digger so will help dig out the channel i think. so hopefully costs should really only be the cost of the actual tunnel itself....hopefully anyway!
just wanted an idea about basic cost of one that will last.......
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whats more important for the site of the polytunnel? we had the site fenced in a while back, its the only bit of level ground thats polytunnel shaped, then i read that its supposed to lie east-west to catch the sun, but this site lies north-south. does it matter? and which side is the strongest to the wide - long side on?
Ours is W-E so it gets plenty of midday sun, but mornings and evenings it doesn't get much as it has to come through the louvres and doors. Also the north side doesn't get much sun at all except at midsummer. So it's 6 of one and 1/2 a dozen of the other - if your site requires a N-S alignment, that will be fine.
For the wind, here it comes mainly from the SW so hits on a corner, which is perfect. The only time a cover has been torn off was with a southerly gale which hit the long south side, then created a vacuum on the north side which tore all that side off and even bent the base rails and bolts. Probably wouldn't have happened if we had attached the polythene to the base rails properly but the right way is not what you might expect. That was an 80mph-er, but the tunnel has survived 100mph with no damage since.
Have a look at Northern Polytunnels - not over priced, wide selection and they do the strongest frames around. Because we are windy here we opted for the base rail type, not the buried polythene, and we also have extra triangulation in the corners and crop bars which double as reinforcers. I also chose to have full louvres at both ends and doors too, to aid throughdraft when it's hot and no wind (happens occasionally !) Choose the best quality polythene you can - it's not expensive but the best will last much longer than they claim - our cover has been on now for at least 10 or 11 years, although it could do with being changed. Also, don't skimp on the anti-hotspot tape which prevents the polythene getting hot over the frame bars, which would make it brittle and it breaks up.
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Our tunnel is more N/S than E/W, and it works fine. We looked which place on the holding was most wind protected, still got sun, was level and also still close to the main track.
It is about 35 by 15, I think, that's fairly big, but also serves as hay storage etc in winter. It also had a water tap inside - v useful for watering in summer.
First Tunnels are great, look at their website it will give you an idea on prices.However, if you really want to get started - just site it so that you can add on hoops later and make the tunnel bigger!
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How has everyone's polytunnels faired with the snow? I am getting one this year but since our veg cage collapsed with snow and ruined about 75% of poles I am worried about spending more money on something else that might get ruined.
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yes we get alot of wind,(lol) its also quite exposed but was planning on planting willows around fenceline to protect site. is it poss to build it urself without a digger? erection costs were 50% of purchase price when we enquired.
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How has everyone's polytunnels faired with the snow? I am getting one this year but since our veg cage collapsed with snow and ruined about 75% of poles I am worried about spending more money on something else that might get ruined.
Ours was fine in the snow although we did sweep snow off the top at intervals.
I'm guessing Fleecewife will be able to allay your fears, I'm sure they get more than their fair share of snow up there.
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yes we get alot of wind,(lol) its also quite exposed but was planning on planting willows around fenceline to protect site. is it poss to build it urself without a digger? erection costs were 50% of purchase price when we enquired.
Those erection costs sound high - does that include preparing the ground?
I can't help you here. Our site was flat and needed vary little prep.
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We put ours up ourslves. It does seem a daunting task but if you work steady and follow instructions it is straight forward. The bit that worried us was getting the polythene over an 8' high 35'long and 15' wide frame!!!! As it happens we waited for a still day and the polythene just slid over the hotspot tape and sort of suctioned on! We were shocked by the easiness of it.First tunnels have instruction videos on their site and come with complete instructions and a free book on polys, they even sent a teabag and a can of Gin and Tonic, apparently the most important bit of kit ;D
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ps. never had any problems caused by snow .
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Snow - we really thought early last year that our polythene was a goner as we had a couple of feet of snow but where it slid down the sides of the tunnel it was about 7' deep and lumpy-bumpy. I have a pic somwhere which I might look out. From inside it looked awful , as if the polythene was stretched beyond repair. Then when it thawed, it all went back to normal and is still on. As I've said before we have the most expensive polythene, but it really is tough, as long as you have it on really tight. We have a few holes in it, one big one from the Jacob who made a big hole for himself and all his friends to climb in and help themselves to my brassicas. That was years ago, we repaired it with repair tape which has to be replaced every couple of years, but it doesn't seem to make it any weaker. There are a couple of 'cane' holes where visitors have forgotten about the cover and pulled a cane up too high and gone through the cover, but these don't tear any further once repaired. There is also a hole where the polythene was pushed onto the point of the ridge of the greenhouse (inside) when it was extremely windy - the whole structure flexes in the wind to a rather alarming degree, but it all survives. We check all the bolts before and after high winds as they can work loose, especially when the structure is new.
Our tunnel is 42 feet by 21 feet so when the cover did blow off it was scary in the extreme and unbelievably noisy, even above the sound of 80mph winds.
I'll do another message about putting them up after I've had my hot mince pie :yum:
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We put up our tunnel ourselves, with no instructions but help from a friend. We had been advised to concrete in the hoops as we are on a windy site. We measued out the position of the holes very accurately (school geometry was useful for the first time here ;D) checking that the two diagonals were exactly equal in length. We (or rather not me but OH and friend) dug out holes about a foot cubed, or maybe slightly deeper then poured in concrete around the poles, checking their exact position again before the dollies (lumps) set. The base rails were then bolted onto these uprights ready to attach the polythene. The hoops sit inside the upright poles, and their height can be adjusted to tension the skin. The ends were attached - ours are wooden framed, but more recent models have better designed ends. Putting on the polythene is easy IF you have an absolutely still day. Our tunnel is 12' high so to reach the top we had to stand on the roof of a Land Rover (H&S would cringe) to tighten bolts etc. The cover slid on easily and needs to be tensioned from both ends first, then at the sides once the ends are secured. It took 4 of us to put the cover on, but now that it is time to change it, we are quite daunted by the prospect and are hoping for help.
It didn't occur to us to pay someone else to put up the tunnel - by doing it ourselves we were able to buy a much larger one than if we had had to spend half our budget on someone else doing it. By very careful planning everything went well, except the bit where we attached the polythene wrongly to the base rails, so it blew off later, but we did get that right on the second attempt ;D.
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Great, I will give it a go then. Good to know about concreting the posts in. Thanks.
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we didn't concrete our posts in, our tunnel has metal base plates. This way it counts as a temporary building, as we needed (agricultural) planning permission (because of its size and it sits on section 75 = agricultural use land only = land).
My OH did all the work himself (with the help of a min digger for these holes), and a good number of teas/coffee and cake from me (!), we put the polythene on between the two of us on a very calm early morning, then tightened it when it was really hot at lunchtime, so it was stretched very well. First tunnel instructions are great.
We get strong winds here too, no damage whatsoever and it has been up for almost four years. When it snows we brush the snow off every day, or as soon as it gets to about 20 cm deep. Same for the fruitcage, it did get damaged last year, but the tunnel has been ok so far, but it looks a it scary if you get inside when it has a deep layer of snow on top!
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Those erection costs sound high - does that include preparing the ground?
I can't help you here. Our site was flat and needed vary little prep.
our nearest supplier/constructor was 2hrs drive away and that was what they quoted on fone, i was quite shocked actually. the site is pretty level, and i wanted to plant straight into soil so dont think it included much preparation.
our neighbour built a second polytunnel and it is shredded already(dont know why tho), hope it doesnt happen to us when we eventually get one.i would be gutted! >:(
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Our supplier had a standard construction cost so it didn't matter where we lived. I'm guessing your nearest is not one of the major polytunnel firms? It might be worthwhile looking at some comparisons.
One of the reasons we opted to have ours constructed for us was to make sure the covering was properly fixed. That way, if anything happened (like shredding) they couldn't turn round and say we hadn't put the cover on properly, or tight enough, or whatever. There were other reasons, of course, another being that I've been a 'Hopalong Cassidy' for a while ;D
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how much did your polytunnel cost may I ask?
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I'm ashamed to say that I can't remember off the top of my head, and I've already had my wrists slapped because someone who read m'blog thought we had bought it for half price.
However, we got it from Haygrove and their prices are pretty much 'all in' - no need to work out how much each bit will cost - so until i can root out the invoice you might want to take a peek there for price ideas.
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ok thanks.
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Are we the only people who need planning permission for a tunnel? >:(
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I think they have clamped down in recent years on polytunnels because of the huge acreages of strawberry tunnels popping up all over the countryside. I feel sure that if we were putting up our tunnel today we would have to get prior approval at least.
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Katie, it depends on size, how far away from houses and roads and most definately wether it is in a garden or field. My poly is the biggest you can get for a garden and as it was away from anyone else so I did not need permission. If I put it in a field though or any bigger it would be considered a business venture and would need permission. That is in my neck of the woods anyway. Best that you checked as some folk dont like them.