Anyone have a poly tunnel?

[rainydogday]

I have a small veg patch and a greenhouse. I keep dreaming about having a poly tunnel so I can grow more. But I would loose the outside veg patch as don't have lots of space. Anyone have any experience? Is it worth it? Can you grow everything in there? I grow chillis in the greenhouse but wondered about growing green beans, salad etc alongside 'greenhouse' plants may be too hot?! Grateful for your opinions

I do.

I am not sure it is worth it - but I've only had it this year and it's been a funny year for growing 'hot' veg.

We used it for chillis, tomatoes (cannot honestly say those grown in the tunnel did better than outside), peppers (same as toms), aubergines (maybe a bit better in the poly than outside) and ginger (definately better in the tunnel).

I grew green beans outside and even in this cool, wet year they produced like crazy. Ditto lettuce and cucumbers.

So I remain a bit on the fence about the poly and whether it has really brought more benefit than the loss of land it took, to be perfectly honest.

Depends where you live. I am in NE Scotland and at 300 metres above sea level, so need cover to grow things, it's too windy for a poly, so Inhave 2 greenhouses, a 6x8 (that was already here) and a 12x8. The big one went up three years ago on one of the veg beds. As well as tomatoes, aubergines, courgettes, chillis, I grow early carrots, pumpkin, early and late salad, herbs, early potatoes in a bag, and for Christmas, overwinter my geraniums and fuchsias. My friend gros an apricot tree in hers.
i don't regret losing the veg bed as I have a longer growing season with the gh. I still have a couple of small veg beds outside, and also can grow things in bags outside. If it wasn't so windy I'd have had a poly. Depends what you want to grow really.

Pollination is one problem growing indoors. I start beans and peas in the greenhouse but move them outside in their pots once they start flowering. French will fruit in the greenhouse but the others all need the better pollination of outside.

Lettuce do well in the greenhouse all summer.

Greenhouse growing of veg means I can control slugs and snails more easily, and of course there’s no pigeon damage (I still get caterpillars, mainly yellow underwings). In exchange for those benefits I get whitefly and, this year, red spider.

Tomatoes last longer indoors before getting hit by blight. Mine are still going strong.

chillis, cucumbers are fine in the greenhouse. Courgettes eventually get mildew, so I move them outside once they get large.

Big advantage is raising of seedlings, you can start them-a bit earlier and cosset them while they’re young and vulnerable

We have one on our allotment. Just now we have salad growing for the winter. It's not heated but will be OK unless it gets very cold. Is it useful? Depends on what you want to grow. You may be able to grow salad in your greenhouse through most of the winter if you keep it frost free.

If your strapped for space could you make some cold frames or cloches to help.

We have one on our allotment that we inherited and every year I have big plans for it…but I’m always disappointed. I may be doing things wrong, but it gets too hot in summer even with ventilation and things need watering more than I can manage. Also, all our tomatoes got frosted as I didn’t make it up there to fleece them and they never really recovered. I’ve just got a book from the library which seems to suggest that it can be planted all year, but that’s not really my experience. Our successes this year have been cucumbers, sweet peppers and that’s it. Aubergines…we got two, no melons, a few tomatoes but the outdoor ones did better! Once we grew sugar snap peas in there but they finished very quickly. Again, they did better outdoors !
Slugs and snails get in and although we have toads in there, stuff gets nibbled. I feel like we should be doing so much better with it as it’s huge, so maybe next year…!