LEFT HAND SIDE

The left side is fitted with 24 Autopot trays (48 x 6.5 ltr pots) and at the far end (most shaded) is a 350 ltr water butt.

Some pots have been fitted with air domes to help aerate the plant roots.

I have tended to try and plant the same crop is both pots in the same tray.

Catalogue of Plants Growing

2 Tomato Roma

2 Tomato Gardeners Delight

2 Tomato

2 Aubergine Black

2 Pepper Hot

4 Sweet Pepper California Wonder

1 Basil

1 Dill

1 Orengo

1 Othe Herb

4 Spinach – Direct Sown

2 Carrot Ideal ( quick baby Carrots) – Direct Sown

2 Kale – Direct Sown

2 Green Leaf – Direct Sown

2 Tree Cabbage- Direct sown

1 Melon – Seedling

2 Rocket – Direct Sown – Some transplanted to raised bed.

3 Fruit Bushes – Will transplant latter – Need to find area and protect from Ducks and Chickens

1 Grape Vine – 8 years old but never grown well. Will try and trial down middle of crop bars.

1 Butter Nut Squash- Seedling

1 Cucumber – Seedling

2 Cabbages planted last year and recovered from moved raised beds. Really the only  two that were not totally eaten by catipillars.

RIGHT HAND SIDE

4ft By 8ft Raised Bed with Mels Mix – Watered with 3 Aquapots feed from 350 ltr water butt.

Vegetables planted in 4ft rows

1 Carrots – Ideal

1 Pok Choi

1 Pok Choi

1 Dwarf Beans (Bush)

1 Cauliflower – Seedlings

3 Strawberry Tubs – 60 plants. Each tub has 2 aqua pots for watering.

These strawberries are doing very well. Not sure what varieties as they were growing in raised bed out side and the shoots have all mixed together.

10 Large Potato Buckets and Bags. Mixed varieties of potatoes. Basically what ever had started to shoot, including potatoes in the back of the kitchen cupboard. These will need to be watered manually.

1m * 1m Link a Bord raised bed.

Slightly trimmed to fit in polytunnel and watered by 1 aquapot.

Another strange mix of vegetable plants but again basically range of seedling that were in propagator and ready to transplant and so but in polytunnel to “give it a go” and experiment. Planted in rows.

1 Cauliflower All Year

1 Leek

1 Cos winter Lettuce

1. Cabbage

Some were lost due to lack of watering, but should not be too much of an issue now the aqua pot has been added.

Potting shelf

Too much to mention.

ISSUES

1. The poly tunnel has a side vent and needs covering with bubble wrap to help reduce temperature loss.

2. The poly tunnel gets very warm 30c in bright spring day when outside temperature was only 12c, hence drys out quickly.

3. Unheated polytunnel, so plants are covered with a fleece overnight.

4. The aqua pots are very leaky so only turned on every other day ( Day light only).

5. My polytunnel is too small, my 10ft by 20ft is nearly full.

Other

1. still have rubbish from build that needs clearing out

2. I have some 1ft by 1ft LED grow lamps. I have used one at night to give some plants “extra daylight”.

3. Need a timer on air pump as it should only run during the day.

4. Moving from commercial to heirloom seeds.

Summary

Its been a long time but now chuffed at what I have managed to do over the last 3 months.

I should make it clear that due to continuing issues with my back, I can only work for 30 minutes or so and then need to take a break. So whilst building my poly tunnel will take a few weekends ( need to be finished by end of February), the actual build time will not be that great.

Quick summery, the poly tunnel will be orientated North South and replaced qty 4  raised beds (4 ft by 8ft). This orientation gets the maximum winter sun and in the summer gets plenty of morning and evening sun light (assuming there is any). The Northern side with have a wide door which leads to the lawn and the south side will have a standard door leading to 3 sheds.

My helpers are my son James 10 and Robert 8 and my wife Rachel for the heavy bits.

30/31 January 2010

Working with Robert we measure out the 10ft by 20ft space for the polytunnel base and hammered in the corner posts.

It was a bit fiddly by after a little while managed to get the layout square.

Being on a roll we dug out the first hole and insterted the anchor plate with its two clips and levelled of the pole to the top of the soil. The ground is slightly sloping  (front to rear) and this appeared to be the the highest of the four corners.

6/7 February 2010

6 Feb – Slow day and 3 ground poles (holes dug and inserted) completed, also cleaning my hydroponic greenhouse and looking for strawberry plants that the chickens and ducks had dug up and scattered around the raised beds and planting them in my auto pot (Easy 2 Grow) greenhouse.

7 Feb – remaining ground poles completed and the diagonals were still within 1/2″ and a height variation of just 1/4″ betwene first and last poles.

Due to back, I was only digging out the exact size of the hole and tacking out small shovels of earth. At hole seven, I was looking in my garden shed for something and noticed my lawn edging tool. By using this tool, I was able to quickly mark out and after digging down the first 12″/30cm use the edging tool to cut and break up the soil quickly to get to an approx depth of 45-50 cm.

After a break and only an hours day light left, I wanted to get some of the frames up, to get a better feel of the actual size (Volume) of the poly tunnel.

I tried screwing the frame together and then installing it. Due to the round being uneven, I couldn’t get the frame square. So after one screw, I put up the frame (South side).

I had problems trying to insert some of the tubes together, so had to enlist the help of my wife. The next three frames went up very quickly with the second pair of hands.

Now, the last frame (Southern end) and the first pole I dug. The frame didn’t fit on the last ground pole. So decide to lift frame from the first pole dug and the whole ground pole lifted 4-6″ which wasn’t good. I needed to secure this ground pole especially as it is an end pole and in the direction of the prevailing wind. But it was getting late and the damp clay soil was freezing.

As the light was fading, I quickly looked along the frames and they didn’t line up. I will have to check this out next weekend.

Jobs to do next.

1. Fixed insecure ground pole , by digging out, securing clips, back filling and ensuring that it is the correct height.

2. Build and secure last frame.

3. Check alignment of all frames, my give First Tunnels a quick call.

4. Add end bracing bars and top support bar.

5. According to the manual the next step is to add the doors. I’m going to look at leveling the ground inside the poly tunnel and add the aluminum base rails and ground sheet.

6. Once I have the inside floor sorted, I want to have a look at the layout and move things inside, whilst I have open ends on the tunnel, plus need to look more at the wooden door frames as carpentry isn’t my thing. I use manual and power saws to cut wood to go into wood burner.

Time for a nice hot Radox bath.

8 Feb 2010

Strolled down to my polytunnel to see my handy work in the daylight.  I checked that the sides were straight and had a closer look at the hoop that was offset.

Even though the ground pegs were straight when I installed them, the spring tension in the hoops had moved a few slightly.

The offset hoop was wrong so I gave First tunnels a quick call and good chatted to a techie about the issue and he gave me some work useful information to consider.  The hoop consists of four sections ( 2 sides and 2 tops), the two tops are slightly different one has  male/female connections and the other female/female, for the hoops to align all the female/female sections should be on the same side for each of the hoops.

So, managed to lift the hoop from the ground poles and turn it round. Now the hoops line up better.

The weather is getting colder and we had some snow midday so there may be issue doing more work this weekend coming.

13/14th February

Saturday was busy with the boys doing their karate gradings, and James after reading all the Percy Jackson books in 3 months wanted to see the the New Percy Jackson film on the cinema. That left just a few hours in the after noon to work on the polytunnel.

1. Dug out the “loose” ground peg, moved securing clamp to correct position tighten it and back filled hole. The clay was slightly frozen which actual made it easy to dig out cleanly and not lose the “bottom” where the base plate sat. The end result was the round pole was at the the correct height.

2. One of the lower hoop sections was damaged ( dent) which ment it did not fit over the lug in the ground pole. The dent was filled out (had to purchase a round file for the job) and it fitted nicely.

Sunday.

1. Fixed the top bar.

2. Fixed the 4 side support bars and square off the front and back (verticals).

3. Add the bottom aluminum base rail to the right hand side, to use as guide to leveling of the internal ground of the poly tunnel.

4. Made the first door frame ( wide door ) which is the front door. Building the door wasn’t the easiest of tasks. but looks out. May be the gap around the edges is slightly to big. If it is still to big after installing it I will add a battern to the out side edge of the door frame to hid the gap.

March 6/7

A lot has happeaned, last weekend, the storm bars, crop bars, side vent were added and doors added.

Saturday

This week end was the covering event. The polythene was brought indoors over night to warm up and the two alumium side rails lifted up 7cm to aid tightening the cover. The brother-in-law assisted with the Covering.

I wanted the 350ltr water butt to be located in the polytunnel so it was placed inside before the polytunnel was covered.

The hardest part was pletting the sides, but after a couple of hours the polytunnel was covered. It was getting late and cold, trying to strech the covering and lowing the aluminum rails was difficult, so it was decided to wait until the morning when it would be warmer.

Using the last of the day light a quickly covered the door panels.

Sunday.

The inside of the polytunnel was cleared and the ground sheet laid out and secured. Being black it helped warm up the polytunnel, ready for the final streching of the covering.

The brother in law didn’t arrive until mid afternoon, but we managed to get the right base rail down to ground level, the left hand side (vent rail) wasn’t so easy and we only managed 3 cms, so the end rails slope a bit. The side vent was secured and there was time to install a link-a-bord rased bed and part of a 8ft by 4ft wooden raised bed.

Poly tunnel now built and ready for fitting out and growing vegetables

My Autopot system arrived today.

December 10 2009

Rain finally stopped long enough to check order. 10 Trays and some connectors were missing, rang Autopot who said they would ship missing items on Monday.

December 17 2009

All missing bits arrived.

March 2010

8 March 10. After tiding up inside my polytunnel, the 350ltr water butt was filled with water (after fitting tap). Various Autopot tray layouts were tried. In the end I fitted 24 trays down 1 side of the polytunnel. This left enough room to get to all the trays.

9-15 March.

Slowly fitted the pipe work to the smart values. The water butt wasn’t raised from the ground and the tap was at the wrong angle (may it wasn’t a good idea to fill the water butt so early), which meant the 16 mm pipe doesn’t lay correctly.

There will be three runs

a. Feeding 8 trays.
b. Feeding 16 trays
c. Feed for aqua pots

The pipe was cut to length and left on a radiator to warm the pipe before inserting connectors. This made the job alot easier (and warmer).

The feed for the aqua pots was stopped of near the rear door and will be extended later.

20 Mar

Build two strawberry tubs and used two aqua pots  in each.

Assembled 12 Airdomes but not sure whether to put them in polytunnel or greenhouse.

Each raised bed has 280 litres of  “Mels Mix” (1/3 Compost, 1/3 Peat and 1/3 Vermiculite), which needed to be moved and stored. Some has gone into spare potato tubs/buckets , some onto of other raised beds but will need to find a place to store the other 400-500 litres until I can re-site the raised beds.

I did have a shock when I removed the weed control mats at the bottom of the raised beds; the soil underneath was covered in slugs. The chickens were let loss to clean up, but this means my other 6 raised beds will have the same problem and not sure what I’m going to do about them.

The suns shining and my back is hurting but need to do some more work.

7 December – Over 1inch 2.5cm of rais has fallen in the last 24 hours so no work on the polytunnel site. The garden is very water logged.

10 December

Two raised beds empted and one frame moved to new location. I have replaced an 1m sq click a bord plastic raised bed with 4ft by 8ft raised bed. The plan is for the click a bord raised bed to go into the Polytunnel.

21 December

The ground has been frozen for the last few days, but have moved thrid raised bed and emptied half of the remaining bed. Due to the cold the gravel paths have frozen and the weed matting is “glued” to the ground.

Besides the the slow progress due to “bad back” and weather I have another problem; the ground where I want to build the ploytunnel is not level.  There is a slope along the length of the poly tunnel and I cheated when I built the raised beds and never leveled of the surface. Need a way of leveling if the surface. Have a couple of options:

1. Dig it and rake flat – Not practical with back and frozen ground.

2. Add some soil and rake flat. I’m running out of soil and again digging it out will be a pain. Not sure how much a cubic meter of soil will cost.

3. Add layer of gravel and add a couple of layers of weed mat. This may be simple option and would allow for better drainage.

7  Jan 10

Not much progress due to snow and freezing  weather.

8 Jan 10

The ground is frozen so will need to wait for the thaw in a couple of weeks.

31 January

Finally managed to layout the site and bury the first “ground pole”.

As the kit was unloaded I was told by the driver that “some of the packs” had split and that I had my 13 packages. After a basic check the alumimum rails were missing.

I rung first tunnels to let them know because it was Friday afternoon they ask me to do 100% check over the weekend and ring them Monday morning. I sent an email just to keep a written record of shortages.

The total weight of the kit is 170kg and even when broken down into 13 package then can be heavy.

Checking All The Parts

This actually took a good hour to check everthing was there.  I emailed a list of the mising items and rung First Tunnels who seemed to be friendly and said they would sort it out on Monday morning.

The weather isn’t too good at the moment and the family is down with bugs so I haven’t taken any photos, but if you wanted to layout all the “stuff” then a clear garage floor or shed would be useful. At the moment all the metal work is laid out on the grass and the “fitting” are laid out in the shed with the polythene and netting.

All the screws etc are nicely bagged up and labled.

There was a nice touch in the paperwork/instruction manual bag a Tea Bag, a gentle hint to read all the documents before rushing in.

Also there was a free book the “The Polytunnel Handbook” which I’ve just started to read, however I would suggest that you consider getting a book before purchasing.

7 December

The delivery firm delivered the missing package, but the aluminium vent kit was never packed with a few fixing items. They have said they will ship these out this week.

15 December

Alumimum vent kit arrived, just in time for the weather to break and get cold. Ground frozen so will now have to wait until it thaws.

Also had a long chat with Autopot and my auto pot kit will be arriving next week.  Alot of work to do and not much time.

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.

• Polytunnel Size Width – 10ft Length – 20ft
• Thermal Anti Fog Cover – “Thermal Anti Fog Polythene, 720 gauge (180 micron) 4 year UVI/EVA guaranteed polytunnel film, with added UV A and UV B filters. These filters dramatically reduce many fungal diseases, like mildew and botrytis. When water evaporation occurs, droplets (fogging) form on the inside of covers, eventually dropping back onto plants, which can cause damage and disease to young and tender plants. An anti-fogging agent incorporated into the film helps reduce this effect. It also contains an Infra-Red additive designed to reduce the speed at which heat dissipates out through the cover – in heated Polytunnels 15-20% fuel savings are achieved. A Thermic cover also helps to scatter light as it enters the Polytunnel.”
  These specifications look good and I like the anti fungal and anti fogging properties especially with the humid summers we have been having.
• Anti Hot Spot Tape Kit – The metal framework of your Polytunnel can become very hot, just like your car bonnet on a hot sunny day – sometimes it can be too hot to touch. Anti hot Spot Tape is a self adhesive tape that is placed over the Polytunnel’s hoops helping to prolong the life of the polythene sheet by at least one year. The slippery surface of the tape also allows the cover to slide effortlessly over the framework when erecting.
  It seems a shame that such an important items is “optional” and hence an extra cost, but I think that it is worth it.
• Crop Bar Kit -  A steel bar is fixed across the hoops above head height. Can be used to support wires, canes, net and hanging baskets. A beneficial effect of crop bars is to strengthen the Polytunnel against wind on blustery sites.
  I live on the top of a small hill and so my garden suffers from a lot of wind, which causes damage to fence panels and has even moved our 14ft diameter trampoline, so any additional strengthening of frame would be useful.
• Storm Brace Kit – These braces are used on all the intermediate hoop joints to help strengthen the structure against wind on exposed or blustery sites.
• Anchor Plate Kit -  I do not want to use concrete and these anchor plates offer the best option also I want to use Base/Slide rails instead of digging in the poly cover.  Once the anchor plates are in position, the plate will prevent lifting and sinking of the framework. This gives an easier, stronger and cheaper result than concreting. Framework can be assembled immediately as there is no waiting for the concrete to set.
• Aluminium Base Rail Kit – These are strong aluminium extrusions, which is clamped to the base of the structure; PVC infill are then used to hold the flexible film materials (e.g. polythene or netting) into the aluminium extrusion. This system is ‘kind’ to polythene and the PVC infills can be removed (and reused) without damaging the polythene, this allows for correction of the polythene should it need re-adjusting. Replacing the polythene cover is simple as the plastic infills can easily be removed and re-fit – No more need for levering battens and nails from the framework or replacing timber when it eventually starts to rot!
  That will do for me. Using Aluminium Base Rails instead of wood is initially expensive but I hope will be cheaper in the long run.
• Aluminium Side Vent (Left) Kit – Aluminium Side Ventilation is a strong (double profiled) aluminium extrusion which is clamped to the side of the structure(approx 1-1½m high); PVC infills are then used to hold the flexible film materials (e.g. polythene and netting) into the aluminium extrusion. This system is ‘kind’ to polythene and the PVC infills can be removed (and reused) without damaging the polythene, this allows for correction of the polythene should it need re-adjusting. Replacing the polythene cover is simple as the plastic infills can easily be removed and re-fitted.
  I have only ordered one vent kit, This will be placed on the sheltered side of the polytunnel away from the prevailing wind.
• Staging (Right) Kit – “A simple and versatile staging support leg 30in high. Clamps easily to each hoop of your Polytunnel and comes complete with fixing brackets and clamps allowing a worktop of your choice.”
  I have ordered one staging kit that will be installed on the opposite of the vent kit. I’m not sure how much of it I will use but at least I have kit to explore options.
• Ground Cover Kit – “Cover the floor of your Polytunnel with squares for easy pot placement guaranteeing uniform plant growth. Tough and tear resistant. This ground cover effectively controls annual and perennial weeds. Its unique ripple weave technology allows excellent water dispersion making it easy to clean – just use a hose. Comes complete with enough to cover the floor area of you polytunnel along with fixing pegs.”
  Weeds seem to easily defeat “standard” weed control matting, so I’m hoping with better results from this ground cover kit.
• Super Upgrade – “Upgrade your Polytunnel to a higher specification by upgrading to a ‘Super’ a superior specification of tube is used for the Polytunnel framework. Normally supplied with 25mm steel the ‘Super’ model is supplied with 35mm diameter. This is more suitable for those very exposed and windy sites.”
  Because of the high winds in autumn and winter, I felt that this upgrade was a good idea. There are many pictures on the web of collapsed polytunnels so erring on the side of caution.
• Timber – Wide Door (Front End) – 2ft 11in wide x 6ft high. The top panel is covered in Shade Net to allow ventilation whilst the lower half is covered with polythene to prevent low-level draughts.
• Timber – Double Door (Rear End) – With an opening of 4ft 6in wide x 6ft high. The top panel is covered in Shade Net to allow ventilation whilst the lower half is covered with polythene to prevent low-level draughts.
• Irrigation Kit – I haven’t ordered any irrigation kit as I intend to install a couple of 220ltr water butts and auto pot systems. The filled water butts will help control temperature.

There is a 5-10 delivery time so the kit should be here by the middle of December.

The more vegetables that I could grow under cover the better as I wanted to grow as many vegetables as I could for the longest possible period.

I had brought a 8ft by 6ft green house back in 2001 and last year (2009) I had installed 4 wilma drip hydroponic systems and an easy 2 grow system. The results were impressive, so much so that by Mid July it was nearly impossible to walk inside. I learned a lot.

• New seedlings initially grow faster  in Autopot/Easy 2 Grow system.
• Wilma Drip System water trays need to monitored reguarly to ensure they don’t run dry. (Which becomes difficult if the plant growth becomes to dense).
• Keep the growth under control so there is enough light.
• Ventilation.
• Pest control.
• I need more covered growing area especially with the wet summers we have been having lately.

Late in the summer when debating whether to purchase a polytunnel or another green house. I opted for another green house and installed the Autopot green house system. This was installed late in the season and didn’t have enough ventilation and suffered with white power forming on all my plants.

After seeing my brassics being eaten away by caterplias and three months of debating, yesterday finally ordered a 10ft by 20ft polytunnel. This would replace 4 raised beds and still leave a 2ft path along the sides of the polytunnel.

I had considered a 12ft wide system but that would not have left enough space around the remaining raised beds and increased the risk of damage to the polytunnel covering.