Just bought a Polytunnel is it worth erecting before Spring?

[Vinny1964]

Hi,

I have recently taken on an allotment and bought a second hand polytunnel frame which I have erected. I had planned to purchase the polythene cover this week to cover the tunnel next weekend - weather permitting.

However I started to have second thoughts as to whether it made sense this late in the season or should I wait to spring to protect the cover from the worst of the winter weather?

If I cover the tunnel next week are there any crops I could sow mid November either with or without a greenhouse heater to keep the frost at bay? Or should I just plan for spring 2016?

Cheers

Vin

[skeggijon]

Hi Vinny and welcome to the vine. If it was me, I'd get the polytunnel up and running. There's lots of things you can still plant - I wouldn't bother with trying to heat it though. Ut costs a fortune to heat a polytunnel.

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'd be a bit more cautious. The best performance from the skin, in terms of longevity depends on how well it is fitted. The hotter when fitted the better as it will shrink back to a tight fit when it cools. If you are confident you will be able to get a warm day then go for it now, otherwise I'd be waiting for sprintime

[Aberdeenplotter]

The converse of course is that if it is fitted cold, when things warm up, your tunnel skin will be flapping about everywhere

[Alison]

Depends on what you mean by a polytunnel. If it's a proper high quality one like the sort of thing they sell at First Tunnels then I'd get it up as the skin should last for years but if it's one of the blowaway types then leave it to spring as they're not good in bad weather. The advantage in getting it up us that you can work in there over winter and start planting out while it's still too cold outdoors.

[lottie dolly]

what sort of cover,the proper stuff,or the green ready made and shaped one.

[Jungle Jane]

There are things to sow & it's good to start little seedlings off undercover,some of the rain we've had would have flooded them,at the moment I've got tiny spring onion,lettuce & Brussels sprouts seedlings (& marigold & nasturtium) some of my onion sets are doing better undercover than outside,i have 5 that im starting off in pots in there. I'm using a blow away tent,I was going to put it away for the winter but it's really handy & a spiders living in there,I couldn't ruin it's house.

[Vinny1964]

Thanks for the replies.....

It is a proper polytunnel, although I think First Tunnels class it as domestic due to its size (10ft wide x 30ft) and the smaller 25mm diameter tubing.

Going back to the comment about the skin not fully stretching in colder weather and flapping / coming loose in Summer, how much of an issue is it?

[Aberdeenplotter]

Vinny, It's unlikely that your cover will come loose but flapping around isn't only annoying, it will shorten the life of the cover. My tunnel is 25ft x 10ft and my first cover lasted 10 years. It went on in mid summer

[Alison]

Have you got bottom rails or are you digging it in to tension the skin? If the former you can always further tighten it if necessary in the summer. However if you're digging it in then it can be more difficult but might not be a problem anyway. I put mine up in March and it was fine.

[Bigmallly]

Don't know if it would work but you could put the cover on now, weight it down with a load of bricks then come spring you can decide how you want to permanently fix it.

[Vinny1964]

Have you got bottom rails or are you digging it in to tension the skin? If the former you can always further tighten it if necessary in the summer. However if you're digging it in then it can be more difficult but might not be a problem anyway. I put mine up in March and it was fine.

I have installed a bottom rail to make it easier to change the skin in the future and to avoid having to dig 60+ feet of trench in clay.

Also I wanted the option to add side ventilation, although again I'm not 100% whether to install. According to first tunnels website you should have side ventilation on at least one side if your tunnel is 30ft or longer, but I was playing around with the idea of semi automatic controls to control temperature and humidity via fans / automatic vents. The roll up cover on the first tunnels site looks ok but I can imagine having problems with the mechanism snagging or becoming difficult to operate after a while.

[Lisasbolt]

Just be careful, i put my cover on this time last year. Was great until February and we had some of the worst winds in decades. It has ripped and stretched the plastic quite a lot. So if you won´t really use it i would wait till spring.
We only put it on with the 2 of us and being 12 meters long, we really needed a couple of extra hands. It was hard work pulling it over. We dug ours in, about 2 foot deep. There are some great youtube videos and well worth a good few viewings, it will help the life spam if you do it correctly

[Bigmallly]

Regarding ventilation, could you not run another rail about 1-2 ft from the base, cover the bottom section with debris netting then above that put your cover.

[Aberdeenplotter]

That's effectively what I have on mine BM except I made and fitted hinged polythene covered lights which can be opened easily on the fine days and closed when it is cold