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Author Topic: Polytunnel - degrees of frost protection?  (Read 5667 times)

Anke

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • St Boswells, Scottish Borders
Re: Polytunnel - degrees of frost protection?
« Reply #15 on: May 01, 2019, 08:32:18 pm »
Good quality garden fleece works wonders! You can out more than one layer loosely over your plants, since I have started to do this every evening during April and May (Scot Borders, so frost possible til end of May) for a few years now I haven't lost a thing. But it does mean yoiu need to pot on a few times and by the end peppers and tomatoes etc will be in quite big pots.

martcol

  • Joined Aug 2018
Re: Polytunnel - degrees of frost protection?
« Reply #16 on: May 02, 2019, 06:11:53 pm »
The forecast for this area has worsened somewhat since I posed the question. It's now giving -1 or -2 for Early Sunday morning, so everything still in pots is coming back into the house, I think. I do have some fleece, and I'll put that over some of the other plants. By Monday it's back up to 8 degrees plus, and looks better next week, so hopefully things will be fine after that. Reckon I can hold things back for a couple of weeks and then they will need to go in. Should be clear of nasty weather by then.

martcol

  • Joined Aug 2018
Re: Polytunnel - degrees of frost protection?
« Reply #17 on: May 07, 2019, 09:27:41 am »
OK, so, forecast vs actual outdoors, and inside the polytunnel.

Fri Forecast 3C, Outside actual 6C, Polytunnel 8C
Sat  2C   3.9C   5.7C
Sun -1C  -1.5C  0.6C
Mon 2C 2.6C 4,3C

So, the forecast was pretty good, and it looks like a fairly steady 2C difference in the polytunnel over the outside. Looking at those as well, I'm glad I brought the tender plants back into the house. 

Unsurprisingly, coldest temp was dawn-ish, around 5-6 am.

Daytime temps peaksed at around 25C, btw, around 15C warmer than outside, when the sun was out.

pgkevet

  • Joined Jul 2011
Re: Polytunnel - degrees of frost protection?
« Reply #18 on: May 07, 2019, 10:38:54 am »
Good call. We never got down to frost although i did bring the trays of stuff back into the greenhouse and throw a heater in there. I don't think it ever came on (was set as low as poss).

DavidandCollette

  • Joined Dec 2012
Re: Polytunnel - degrees of frost protection?
« Reply #19 on: May 09, 2019, 08:03:55 am »
We use those cheapy upright mini greenhouses inside the polytunnels. Bought them for next to nothing at the end of the season. You can still put fleece on top of the plants at night.the greenhouses are then dismantled and stored away for the summer

 

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