Polytunnel options.

[bazzaboy]

Having informed the local authority of what you are doing, the ball is in their court to respond or not.

Thanks, nickdub, that's exactly what I did: " I would like to put up a polytunnel (height 2m . dimensions approx 4 x 8m). Do I have to apply for planning permission?"
and received the reply:
"Thank you for your enquiry regarding a polytunnel. In order for the Council’s Planning Department to process and reply to your enquiry you will be required to pay the relevant fee of £48.00. You can either pay the fee by cheque or by card in our reception or over the telephone."


That was to get an answer to the question "Do I need to apply?" It further transpired that if, for my £48, they replied that I DID need to apply there was a further "relevant fee" of more than £200 for them to consider the matter.... And they could then simply refuse permission....

So I gave up. That was in 2014 so the costs might be higher now.

I did recently hear that another council was planning on taking over that district council "for reasons of efficiency" so they're all having their own struggles about position, influence and status etc. Theoretically "councils" seem a good idea, in practice perhaps they're sometimes less than perfect....

[nickdub]

Right.

For anyone who is a similar situation now I'd advise a slightly different version ie "I intend to do so-and-so, please let me know if you see a problem with it". I dare say that in your case the result would have been much the same.

The problem of course from the Council POV is that some people want one thing, while others object to it. I've put a poly-tunnel up in my garden last year, but have already had a comment form a neighbor that she doesn't like it, albeit she cannot see it when the leaves are on the trees.

[Small pumpkin]

Will be planting in open field in DG8... By open, I mean open... The hedge is 3 years old

Do you have?
2 or 4 part hoops
Crop Bars
Twin support Brace

Looking at some sites, they say align the tunnel wall (curved Side) with prevailing wind. (Stops the doors blowing in and lift off) Got to do something in this space now.

Think is can't decide how big and would it be better getting 2 so that one can get gentle heat early season, or... or..

4 part hoop
Yes to everything else on your list. I also went with anchor plates for the legs. And timber base rails but I still buried the cover as well.
All 3 of my tunnels are positioned north to south for best light.

[4Shoes]

4 part hoop
Yes to everything else on your list. I also went with anchor plates for the legs. And timber base rails but I still buried the cover as well.
All 3 of my tunnels are positioned north to south for best light.

Thanks for your help
Given the layout of the Garden, North \ South is 45 deg to prevailing wind and boundary. is not going to work for the tunnel I'd like to get. Getting it is another problem

Will see if I can mock up a sketch

Take it you have 5' hoop spacing where you are...

[Bacchus]

My tunnel is 36'x18' and I didn't ask for permission from anyone - but then I live in the wilds of the back of beyond where nobody cares about such matters

I did however check with the local council website and they do apparently have a couple of rules in place. You don't need permission for a polytunnel as long as it doesn't project past the front of the house and it mustn't have a concrete base. I may have slightly concreted in the hoops to ensure the tunnel doesn't end up in a neighbours field - (I can cite bovine health and saftey concerns here) but I think I'm safe enough all round.

Edit - I should add that the tunnel is orientated north/south with the prevailing wind normally coming from the south. With that in mind I changed the door design to have a single door on the south side and large double doors on the north side - my thinking being I wanted the wind to get out of the tunnel quicker than it could get in...

[4Shoes]

Impressed
That is some tunnel. Sliding door ?

Don't think my budget will stretch that far.

My concern is that getting a tunnel that size, all your eggs are in one basket, so would I be better getting 2 smaller... Especially with the high winds I get here.

SP - See you have 3 - how large are they?

[MarkPelican]

My understanding is that (subject to planning restrictions) the bigger the better. The larger the volume of air inside the polytunnel, the less the temperature will vary because of sun and cold.

My polytunnel is 20ft by 10ft and the temperature can easily reach 40C on a sunny day in May. I've got a temperature sensor (running off a Raspberry Pi) which reads the temperature in the Polytunnel every 10 minutes and during February on 17 days the temperature got above 20C and on 14 days it fell below freezing.

[Small pumpkin]

SP - See you have 3 - how large are they?

Sorry for the delay
I've got 10ft x 10ft
12ft x 20ft
14ft x 25ft

[4Shoes]

Sorry for the delay
I've got 10ft x 10ft
12ft x 20ft
14ft x 25ft

Thanks for getting back
I'm thinking of a large tunnel with double sliding doors front and back. Concern would be a rip in the plastic could be a disaster waiting to happen.

Last year I lost a cattle shed in the wind, so I know the power of wind in this area.

Perhaps it is a case of getting a smaller tunnel this year to see how it performs and then look at options for the following years once my hedges are more mature.

[muck lover]

Right.

For anyone who is a similar situation now I'd advise a slightly different version ie "I intend to do so-and-so, please let me know if you see a problem with it". I dare say that in your case the result would have been much the same.

The problem of course from the Council POV is that some people want one thing, while others object to it. I've put a poly-tunnel up in my garden last year, but have already had a comment form a neighbor that she doesn't like it, albeit she cannot see it when the leaves are on the trees.

Nick maybe you should consider a charm offensive. Give your unhappy neighbour some fresh strawberries or tomatoes from your polytunnel.

[nickdub]

I did get her a bucket of coal in when the snow was making things tricky, so hopefully that has smoothed out a few feathers.

Longer term I have an evergreen magnolia which I have grown on in a pot. I'll probably plant that at a strategic spot against the hedge, so eventually the view over from her parking spot will be of that instead.

[muck lover]

I think my polytunnel is beautiful. I gaze at it with love in my heart. There’s no accounting for some folks.

[its4billy]

So many options

Now the cruddy weather is (hopefully) gone I’ve been looking online for a polytunnel.

I’m going for a tunnel 20ft wide and 40ft long but there are some things I need to consider.

Most suppliers boast about a near vertical side shape which maximises growing space right up to the wall of the tunnel. My thought is that the traditional curve of a semicircle tunnel would withstand a much stronger wind than one with a vertical side.
Am I worrying too much?

Another option is ventilation. Having a strip of insect net along one side seems to defeat the object of a polytunnel because it’s being kept cool all the time. Would I be just as well off by leaving the door open when it’s really hot?

I’ve started to prep the ground but run straight into trouble with huge rocks just under the surface

[nickdub]

I reckon construction and material is more critical to standing up to high winds than size or shape.

Due to the sloping nature of my site I put up some concrete block walls first starting at the lower end which taper off as they come up the slope so that I had a horizontal top to the wall. Then I mounted some old scaffold boards edge on on top of the wall so I would have something wooden to let me screw fixing plates to the outside to sandwich the polythene sheeting down, so it couldn't come out. I drove some reinforced post uprights in vertically too inside the walls, so I could adjust the scaffolding boards a bit and also bolt through them, so the boards couldn't move unless they pulled the posts out first. Then I screwed through the posts into the block wall as well. The bottom of the metal frame at the sides is fixed to the top of the scaffold boards with steel straps which are looped over and then screwed to the boards either side. I'm not keen on worrying about things blowing away. :-)

The only thing I may need to redo is the tensioning of the plastic cover - I'm pretty sure I didn't get it tight enough before I fixed it down - live and learn - hopefully.

Of course I had to custom make the end door - but I have plenty of second hand timber and poly-carbonate sheeting knocking around, so all that took was work - I used flash-band and rubber pipe cut into sections to secure the end of the plastic sheet round the end metal frame poles - then used the wood frame inside and the poly-carbonate outside to sandwich everything at the end in place.

[4Shoes]

Now the cruddy weather is (hopefully) gone I’ve been looking online for a polytunnel.

I’m going for a tunnel 20ft wide and 40ft long but there are some things I need to consider.

Most suppliers boast about a near vertical side shape which maximises growing space right up to the wall of the tunnel. My thought is that the traditional curve of a semicircle tunnel would withstand a much stronger wind than one with a vertical side.
Am I worrying too much?

Another option is ventilation. Having a strip of insect net along one side seems to defeat the object of a polytunnel because it’s being kept cool all the time. Would I be just as well off by leaving the door open when it’s really hot?

I’ve started to prep the ground but run straight into trouble with huge rocks just under the surface

Think I am almost there - 14' x 35'.
Got out the lawn mower and cut the foot long grass down to size, then lowered blade and cut out the perimeter, doors and paths to see what it will look like.

Its a bit like looking at an empty room, looks big, but likely to be much smaller once its in place.

Now I understand the 3' side walls.... I have 3' electric fence spikes to mark out the hoops, when you walk round the space, it works - so happy with that.

I'm was planning to put in double doors, so thinking about ventilation top of each, so like you, can't get my head round side ventilation. How long is a "longer tunnels"?

I suspect 30' is considered long, so going to have to address this. One Supplier I'm looking at sandwiches netting between 2 layers of plastic. Cuts a hole in the inner layer - mid hoop - and rolls up outer to allow ventilation. Might just fit couple vents initially, and then increase if there is a problem. Is this a problem for others or have you just not fitted and left doors open?

They have another option of fitting a fan in the roof.

Might be get tunnel and fix that problem when I get to it.

Going for a set to benching down one side option, except fitting it down both sides at one end. Thinking along idea of potting end, growing end.

Was up North East (Scotland) last week hearing about all the tunnels blowing away, so likely to just concrete them in.

any other advice on what "you should have got" when buying a tunnel welcome