A few pics from inside my 9x6ft poly tunnel

[simon180399]

As title, we are growing cucumber, chili peppers, sweet peppers, celery, melon, water melon, courgettes, aubergines and potatoes , not sure what is growing inside one potatoe bin the two distinctive looking leaves appear to be a melon yet none were planted or dropped in there.

Everything except the peppers were grown by us from seeds that I reclaimed from a landfill site.

melon (just moved today and ive attempted to make some king of climbing frame)
water melon (planted at the same time as the melon)
tomatoes 'bush' and shirley
cougettes
potatoes (the two distinct melon? leaves can be seen)

[simon180399]

A few more

cucumbers with my attempt at a climbing frame
peppers all utilising old gravy granule containters that had been thrown away
the outside of the tunnel, the green wheelie bin is harvesting water from the tunnel but inside the bin is a shovel full of chicken manure and this gives me free fertiliser, and it seems to work ok.

[BertieFox]

Best of luck with the water melons, but maybe in South Devon you might succeed. Our experience is that they are extremely difficult to grow (just north of the Loire) (apart from getting tiny fruit late in the season) even in a sunny year. The plants are nothing like as vigorous as ordinary melons and quite often damp off or get mildew. If you are trying a hardy variety bred for cool climates, it will be interesting to hear if it works, and how good the water melon is.

[simon180399]

Hi bert,
I am not sure which variety they are but they seem to have got a lot further than the last time we tried, but as you can see the plants are tiny in comparison to the other melons and they were planted on the same day, well we live in hope.

regards simon

[Rustybean]

my PT is similar size, I put raised u shapes bed inside which as you can see is working, high temperature is biggest problem ! Similar crops too

[simon180399]

You have yours set out very neatly, we have just kept everything in containers or grow bags this year to see if we can improve on last year, I know what you mean about the heat I went to water up yesterday and it was 48 degrees in there, but things had grown a bit more since I took these pics on sunday. good luck.

[Rustybean]

yes everything growing well, last year tomatoes hit the roof but not a single flower! Not sure if just too hot or fed them too much, cucs, peppers and aubergines at back enjoy the heat though.

[BertieFox]

Tomatoes do better when you treat them hard, and you will get better flowering and fruit from a high POTASH feed rather than giving them nitrogen. On a recent 'Gardeners' World', Monty Don was going to try a method where tomatoes are grown in very small pots but which were fed frequently; it will be interesting to see how that experiment goes. Personally I always plant mine directly in the soil and do not feed, but I work a lot of good compost into the bed before planting. That seems to work very well, despite normally very high temperatures in the tunnel.

[Rustybean]

Thanks - perhaps the new soil last year was too full of nutrients and I was too kind, I will be less nice to them from now on, no nice words !

[Two_Sheds]

tomatoes hit the roof but not a single flower!

That IS unusual. Were you feeding them lots? As said, they need potash feed when they start to flower, otherwise no feeding at all.

Bob Flowerdew deliberately starves some of his toms in very small pots, to force an early crop. He doesn't get many, but it proves a point.

[Scarlet]

How much height is available to them?That deep bed takes a lot of the height, perhaps you should think of growing a shorter/ bush variety.
Also, how close together are you planting? it looks like quite a few in there!

[Rustybean]

They could grow to 5foot, thinned out and have taken out the smaller ones and transplanted them outside, shame to compost them, nothing lost if they don't grow! Checked this morning - flower buds developing - so excited !

[Scarlet]

How many have you got left in each bed and what spacing have you given them?

[Rustybean]

Probably not enough - about 12 inches apart . What do you advise ? Types - mixture ( I lost the seed packet so be a surprise ! )

[Scarlet]

I'm also one for planting too close! I try for 18inches apart, though often my measuring stick changes! You need to be able to reach in to armpit, harvest fruit and de leaf. They need plenty of light and good air flow, if not they will suffer and you may end up with botrytis. On your photo, I think I can see that you have them 4 deep, in a 2ft bed I'd plant a single row.