Question about plastic folding cloches

[Littlemouse]

I thought I'd nabbed a bargain.. last year in B&Q they were selling of cheap some plastic cloches about 3 feet long and 18 inches high. The sort that fold flat. They weren't priced so the assistant bunged a sticker on them for £1 each and I bought 9... just come across them in my shed and wondering if these will be durable for over wintering or whether I should use something else?

If anyone has any thoughts/views I'd be happy to hear them? maybe they are just summerweight?

[Scottishnewbie]

i had some and the plastic went all hard and brittle so i think they wouldnt.

[Capsid]

I've used mine for around 3 years now both summer and winter but finally they have ripped at one end. I think they get brittle in the summer sun rather than from the cold of winter. For £1 each they are an absolute bargain IMO so you won't lose much by testing one or two this winter. Mine cost £20!

[Littlemouse]

Really???? £20.00 (presume not each) can we be thinking of the same item? I don't know what they would have been selling for. I suppose for a £1 it isnt going to matter too much what I do with them!

My other bargain - actually freebies - were those water cooler bottles. Our neighbour used to have the bottles delivered then when empty left them out in the recycling plastics box so I used to nab them. OH cut the bottoms off and made me some really neat cloches. Not an original idea but useful. Not being proper bell shapes they don't store tidily or neatly, so we have them threaded in vertical columns on bamboo canes.

Currently I have some over my PSB and cabbages as barrier to new slugs reaching them - and to stop anything else ingesting the slug-pelleted slugs.

[Capsid]

These are the cloches I'm referring to.

Buy Easy Poly Tunnel (Standard) online from Dobies

[Littlemouse]

Ah.. no these are nothing as lovely as those. (Though I have got 2 of the holed polythene type tunnels which I bought a couple a few years ago from a Lidl supermarket for a few pounds meaning to use them on my allotment when I had one).

Mine are more like an old fashioned tent with a gusset arrangement at each end and loops for pegging them down, but the ends are difficult to deal with to create a complete barrier for keeping out slugs.

Will see if I can take a photo.