Dec

Polytunnel Growing Systems

My new polytunnel will replace 4 4ft by 8ft raised beds that’s 4*4*8 = 4*32= 128 square feet of growing area.

The poly tunnel is 10ft*20ft so covers 200 square feet. Taking into account a 2ft wide path way down the middle of the polytunnel 2*20ft = 40 square feet that in theory leaves 200 sq ft – 40 sq ft = 160 sq ft of growing area.

I should say that the poly tunnel will be orientated North – South as I have a House at the bottom of the garden that does block so winter sun ( Dec – Jan) . I get a lot of early morning sun and this orientation will allow maximum morning and evening sunlight.

I was looking at the option of simply replacing the raised beds inside the polytunnel, which would have been the cheapest option. But I really have had great success with the Autopot systems and decided that I will install a 30 x 2Pot trays (That’s 60 Pots) and a 350 litre Water Butt. These will be placed on the left hand side (east) of the polytunnel.

Each Autpot Tray measures 1ft by 2ft and I really would like to install the 350 litre water butt inside the polytunnel to act as a thermal source heating up the polytunnel in winter and help cooling it in the summer.

I haven’t looked at the exact layout but 3 rows of 10 trays running parallel to the side of the poly tunnel would fit but would not allow space for the water butt. I will need to find the best fit once I have the poly tunnel erected.

The west side of the tunnel will have space for 15 potato buckets/bags a small easy to grow system (one 2pot and 1 large pot), I will use 47 litre tank to feed aquapots in the potato buckets and 2 strawberry tubs. I have 3 earthboxes systems (which I didn’t use last year) and a number of grow tubs.

I’m going to experiment with a number of airdomes, which unfortunately require mains. The mains will be run from a shed nearby.

Due to a shipping error when I ordered my Wilma drip systems, I inherited a number of 11ltr square pots. Last year I used them to grow carrots and turnips. The pots were placed in the trays that you get to hold growbags with the tray holding water. I’m going to experiment further with this and try adding an aquavalue to regulate the water supply better. The trays would need to be covered to reduce water evaporation and algae growth.

These grow bag trays would also fit on the left hand side and feed from the easy to grow water butt.

My garden is teaming with slugs and have some copper coated weed mat, that I will lay under the trays and tubs to reduce slugs. I had some success with this approach last summer, but found that the slugs “crawled” along the water pipes to avoid the copper. I might consider wrapping some of the copper coated weed mat around the pipes to see if that helps deter the slugs.

The advantage of using the autopot system in the Polytunnel for me is that I can move the pots to my greenhouse autopot system or simply place them on growbag trays outside.