Things you don't want to see in your polytunnel......

[marchogaeth]

Oops, what little darlings! Sorry M, after all the comforts you've given them too!

Cats only work on cupboard love. The fact that I "rescued" them has no sway at all. As far as they are concerned I'm lucky to have them - all six of them! I got the children I teach to work out how much Miss spent keeping them each year. One child put her hand up and asked me what I lived on after paying for them! (bless)

[marchogaeth]

About 2 months after putting our polytunnel up, one of our dogs tore a hole in the side to get to a cat that was in there (huge doors were wide open, but he went through it anyway). Given that he is a fully grown male Boxer, you can imagine the size of the hole.... £150 repair bill...

It is now completely fenced off from the dogs....

OK makes a few yards of repair tape look like a bargain! Hopefully, we've made it sheep and goat proof but the beggers will climb when pushed to it.

[OverWyreGrower]

What ARE the downsides to growing in a polytunnel tho? Watering could be a chore, and buid up of salts in the soil I would imagine.Ventilation could be a bit awkward also methinnks?

These last few days, I've struggled with temp and ventilation... with both doors permanently opened (even at night)... the daytime temperature (7am to 9pm) hasn't dropped below 25-30 degrees, with it getting up to 40-45 degrees in the midday heat/sun... WAY too hot!

The irrigation has been on twice a day (at least) for at least 30mins to an hour, to try and get some water into the soil and keep it there!

[Vince G]

Mrs Vince and I love our tunnel. It's only got up to 39ºC so far though, but that's hot enough and the aubergines and cucumbers look glad to see us when we turn up each day with a watering can and pull the flaps down to get some air in.

Gets very humid in there, so we were wondering about sticking several buckets of water in there and having a sauna!

[VirginVegGrower]

Blight on your tomatoes

[VirginVegGrower]

My peas in guttering, nibbled. Who's the bl**dy culprit?

[marchogaeth]

My peas in guttering, nibbled. Who's the bl**dy culprit?

Earwigs?? The b****rs are really sneaky and positively refuse any offer of an upturned yogurt pot (large), stuffed with newspaper on a stick as proffered by Bunny Guiness or some such as a solution!!

[VirginVegGrower]

I am suspecting mice maybe. Some shoots are savaged. Moved to greenhouse bench now.

[roitelet]

Onion sets in modules dug up and a large hole in the corner of the tunnel. 'It' has eaten all the mouse bait and cleared several pots of rat bait and still not gone! Super rat??

[marchogaeth]

I have biological control (six plus a few wild ones):-



But then that is how this whole thread started!

We have quite a lot of experience of dealing with rats who just love our house attic to try and overwinter in. (Probaly because the cats can't get there.) The trouble with putting poison out is that, at this time of year especially, they will take it away and store it because there is all this lovely fresh food around like your peas and onions, V and Roitlet. They will die but not now. We get round this by using blocks of poison which you fix in place. To use this the rats have to gnaw it and consume it and so they die!! The ones we use are called Tom Cat Blocks from the local farmer's co-op and only come in big tubs but I'm sure there must be other things around that do the same job.

[marchogaeth]

Carrot root fly in the overwintered carrots! Not had this before under cover. There must have been a very late second generation of flies here last year. Does anyone know, will they now be established in the tunnel ecosystem? The RHS web site says they overwinter in the ground so I'm thinking no carrots/parsnips/celeriac in there at all this year?

[Kristen]

I think if you can plant in a different part of the greenhouse, and have a barrier between last year's zone and this years (so the blighters can't crawl to the new zone) that should be fine. obviously best to fully encase the new zone in enviromesh to keep them out, but if you do that and include part of last year's Carrot zone I think there is risk that they hatch, emerge, find themselves already inside a netted Carrot enclosure and declare that it is Carrot Fly Christmas come early!!

[marchogaeth]

Where am I going to put the 20 odd tomato plants when the nights warm up?

[bario1]

I'm sure we'd all love to see how your polytunnel looks now, M!

[marchogaeth]

I am sick of looking at the peppers and aubergines but I went to see if it was worth buying some and all the ones in the two local garden centres and even F0cus/3&Q looked worse so I'm leaving them there for now. I'll limit the flowers and at least the peppers/chillies are all over winterable.