Author Topic: Prepping the polytunnel for the new season (Read 6043 times)

Moregin · « **on:** February 15, 2011, 07:16:03 pm »

Over the winter my chooks have been using the beds for dust baths but they got evicted today!!!

I am about to start getting things ready for planting in spring and have dusted off the rotovator to turn the beds over. What have any other polytunnel owners used to feed their beds? Does anyone have experience of using manure in your beds? I have well rotted manure and some compost for digging in but I'm concious of seed contamination giving me hassle later in the year.

Any advice greatfully recieved

Cheers

Stu

Anke · « **Reply #1 on:** February 15, 2011, 09:27:50 pm »

I use all my own manure for both p/tunnel and outside veg garden. Yes weeds are a bit of a problem, but what else can you do? I mulch, but that also creates problems with slugs (esp outside).

In p/tunnel I find that when watering only the actual plant and not the whole bed, weeds are kept under control and as I have enough foul weather days, weeding in the p/trunnel isn't usually a probelm.... (it's the most therapeutic garden job there is, with the radio on...)

I also cut a lot of the weeds for my goats - they love dandelions, chickweed (as do the chooks) and thistles, nettles etc etc. (but not ground elder). And I do have an ongoing war with couchgrass.... but who hasn't?

Moregin · « **Reply #2 on:** February 15, 2011, 09:37:19 pm »

Thanks Anke,

I dont have a couchgrass problem but I get masses of chickweed but the chooks get it houfed over the fence to pick through!!!

My main worry was seeds in the manure being germinated and rushing ahead of any seedlings i plant. I am fortunate in having access to ancient cow & horse manure and I was thinking of just the cow stuff dug in. along with some compost to put some fibre back in. It was fresh topsoil I used to fill the beds last year.

Fleecewife · « **Reply #3 on:** February 16, 2011, 11:17:03 am »

Horse manure is better than cow. If it is well rotted then any grass seeds the horses have eaten should have been killed. If the stack has had nettles growing on it, then you could bring those seeds into your tunnel along with the manure. We use well rotted manure from our poultry and from our sheep (from clearing out their field shelters occasionally). Haven't noticed a weed problem from that. Chickweed is a sign that your soil is fertile. Weeds are always going to be a problem in a tunnel, but it is relatively easy to get rid of the perennial type. As well as manure and compost, I use seaweed meal extensively - we are far from the coast or I would collect my own. I also use wood ash from the wood burner on certain crops such as onions etc.

Anke · « **Reply #4 on:** February 17, 2011, 12:56:50 pm »

My biggest problem is actually voles and mice in the polytunnel, oh and we have mole-motorway in this year too... But planting fairly big plants (I always germinate in a pot) means that slugs don't normally kill things, anything sensitive like early carrots get sown in a bucket. They seem to leave tomatoes alone.

Weeds are not really a problem, with early weeding and spot watering. If you don't have a rodent problem, you can also use cardboard as a mulch around the plants.

Fleecewife · « **Reply #5 on:** February 17, 2011, 06:25:51 pm »

Ah rodents

Ours climb to the tops of the highest plants, make nests under anything such as a bucket which is in one place for more than a day, eat any seeds I leave lying overnight by mistake, steal the pretty blue organic slug pellets to decorate their nests and are so sure of themselves they don't bother to run away when I go in, unless the dogs are with me. They also eat young lettuce plants - very healthy for them I know but we want to eat those ourselves. Then lots of little song birds come in and eat the tomatoes......and if I leave the doors open for a minute all my hens rush in for a dust bathe and a taste of whatever is just reaching picking size. But they are all company - how sad am I

When the rodents get really bad we have been known to set traps and we find that what we thought were a handful are in fact armies ! The terriers will dig them out too, but make a huge hole big enough for me to sit in, and spray all the plants with flying soil

Anke · « **Reply #6 on:** February 18, 2011, 08:57:48 pm »

Well I find that the voles don't go for your usual mousetrap, they prefer the green shoots of new plants! But yes, any bucket needs turing quickly with spade in hand... (or foot quickly in)... But I have stopped to really get myself worked up on this, nothing I can do (could always train an owl to live in the tunnel!)...

Blonde · « **Reply #7 on:** March 05, 2011, 02:57:57 am »

Quote from: Moregin on February 15, 2011, 07:16:03 pm

Over the winter my chooks have been using the beds for dust baths but they got evicted today!!!

I am about to start getting things ready for planting in spring and have dusted off the rotovator to turn the beds over. What have any other polytunnel owners used to feed their beds? Does anyone have experience of using manure in your beds? I have well rotted manure and some compost for digging in but I'm concious of seed contamination giving me hassle later in the year.

Any advice greatfully recieved

Cheers

Stu

Put some clear plastic down over the soil you intend to plant in to and make sue there is sand on all sides on the edges to stop the wind from blowing it away. On a hot dayf the weed seeds will cook alopng with all the other bugs that are in your small garden patch. This process is call "solarisation" and is used in large commercial practices. Leave for one or 2 days and then remove add your manure and plant your vegies into it. Your manue will be clean of all bugs as it has been composted and has been up in temperature to break down the nutrients to make it more friendly in the garden.