Plastic Greenhouses

[rick_the_novice]

This is the first garden I have had in years, and started growing my own veg. I bought a 4 tier Greenhouse (One of those pvc ones) and its been in my opinion a great buy, but I am tempted to buy one of these walking plastic greenhouse. I was wondering if anyone has an thoughts on them?

[chris]

If you search for "blowaway" you'll find the pros and cons (cheap greenhouse, will blow away if you do not secure it properly). Erm, yep that's it in a nutshell

[Munch]

We have one of the plastic walk in 'blowaways' at my lottie. It actually comes with guy ropes and had withstood high winds. Much to our amazement!

We have also weighed it down all round the edge with brick which also seals it and seems to keep the heat and humidity in.

We found it our best option for germinating seeds even in comparison to my heated propagators!

P.S welcome to the vine, you will get lots of friendly help and advice here. Great bunch of nutcases we are!

[scarey55]

I have a 4 tier plastic greenhouse (I expect it is the same as yours) and I now also have a walk in plastic greenhouse from lidl (cost about 45 euros) I have had it for 2 years now and the plastic is starting to degrade and I expect I will need either a new cover or a completely new greenhouse for next year but for 45 euros it has served me well and I have been very happy with it. It is well secured to the wooden terrace and it has stayed put so far but, as Chris said, it will blowaway at the first decent gust of wind if you don't secure it.
I put the small 4 tier one inside the bigger one and have managed to grow melons in it this year. I think the second greenhouse gives a bit of extra protection and with a couple of tealights in it, I can start growing seedlings much earlier. They come highly recommended from me

[Florence Fennel]

Welcome Rick, I'd certainly give it a try. I had three blowaways do just that, so now I've got a little stayput fastened to my wall, but if you have somewhere fairly sheltered and fasten it down well you should be ok. There's loads of information on here about greenhouses. Have a look on "Undercover Operations". I wouldn't be without some form of house now, they're great for starting things off. I like Scarey's tip about the tea lights, I'll be using that one, thank you!

[Germinater]

I bought my big one this spring and it's been great great humidity for the cucumber and the chillies and peepers love the extra heat.brilliant for germinating seeds and brill for the tomato cutting to..Argos were selling the big ones for £27 a while back not sure if there still selling them at that price but worth a look ..good one to with strong PVC .

[baldrick]

big ones well secured yes. ive seen tunnel shape withstand more than the greenhouse shape. as for my little half size greengouse shaped one, first it cooked my plants (they shouldnt come with doors!) then it broke its guy ropes so i put paving slabs on the bottom so the bottom poles sheared in half and it still blew away. I now use whats left against a south facing wall without a cover until himself can make me some fancy shelving with perspex sides and top.

[horticultural_hobbit]

I had a wilkos £10 one. Being a tight fisted educator, thought that would be do a good job. Ma weighed it down, and tied it to bricks and everything. Only the windy days of April crushed it like a bug. Thought i could tape the struts securly with Pop's gaffer tape, but the gusts were having none of it. it keeled over, and aubergine and courgette had to be rescued from beneath it. Should I get another one, I won't be so cheap about it. Even if it is one of those four tier jobbies. They appear to be a bit more robust really.

[maljackson]

I bought my Lidl walk in GH early last year for about forty quid. Last year was also my first year growing stuff.

I noticed early on that stuff sowed into pots in the GH grew far faster than anything I sowed in the ground. I then made the mistake of putting a bag with spuds in it, and the spuds grew so fast they grew through the mesh shelving and made it impossible to move out. Luckily they stopped when they reached the roof.

Problems so far: the guy ropes (string really) snapped and I replaced them with rope. The little plastic belt type fastener that hold the roll up door in the up position broke, so I now use a clip thing to hold it up. No show stoppers really, and I'm sure I can get another year out of it.

And, when I checked out the similar priced Wilko's walk-in last year, the Lidl was clearly heavier. You can draw your own conclusion on what that means.
Mal.

[scarey55]

I bought my Lidl walk in GH early last year for about forty quid...

Problems so far: the guy ropes (string really) snapped and I replaced them with rope. The little plastic belt type fastener that hold the roll up door in the up position broke, so I now use a clip thing to hold it up. No show stoppers really, and I'm sure I can get another year out of it.

I had the same problems Mal and I just replaced them as you have. I also found that the plastic degrades over time too but, as you say, not a show stopper and even if I have to but one every couple of years, I still think it was a bargain.

[ginger ninger]

I had one of the heavy plastic green houses...it was fantastic. It lasted 3 years but it was well worth the money I paid for it. The nak with them is to pull the plastic really tight, pull the excess inside then weight it down with bricks. I also weighted mine down with plastic bendy buckets in large trays with tomatoes and cucumbers in them. The last year I had it I bought some of the big bubble wrap and wrapped it all inside...I would recommend you do this to start off with, it saves the frame ripping the plastic from the start.

[Jelliebabe]

I have two (by accident!) I use one set of the shelving inside my conservatory for my chilis! One is outside weighted down only with grow bags. I have a growbag greenhouse too whigh is a bit longer (growbag length!). Never had one blowaway despite the name! and you can get replacement covers if they do degrade for not tooooo many lbs from wilkos or the like!

[briggsy2011]

I started out with 2 blowaways but now have a green house. I have used the 4tier shelving in my greenhouse so have the plastic covers spare if anyone wants them. On one of them the zip has gone on one side but they are still usuable and not wethered at all.

[sil]

hi, am new to this so hope this is in the right place.
I bought a walk in plastic greenhouse in march from pound stretcher £ 29.99.( I love it)
I have read all about them blowing away.
It stand's against the fence and backs onto the house wall on the patio, Hubby used 6 pipe clips to fix it to the fence and 4 to fix to the floor plus it is anchored with rope to the wall, we also added more of those green ties.
expecting 50 mile winds later (fingers crossed) it is still there in morning.

[Distortedclarity]

Good luck with your GH sil! It sounds pretty nicely secured with rope, fence and floor clips so hopefully you will be fine. I wish I knew someone who is handy with tools and could secure mine to the ground. The wind was so violent earlier today it was nearly bending the giant tree overlooking my garden in half, luckily the blow away didn't decide to take off today, but it was a close one!