Inherited 2 polytunels in Scotland.... help?!

[stephsabird]

Hi all

I've worked for several years growing specimen trees in New Zealand... At 26 this experience was so amazing and I learnt many native trees and was inspired to pursue a career to do with nature and horticulture.

However - my partner and I have come back home to the UK and found a job working on an island in the Scottish Highlands. As a Southerner this is a far cry from where I grew up, and I've never had much experience of UK gardening anyway!

My issue is this... as the most 'garden-y' person on our small team I've been given the task of reviving two dilapidated polytunnels as an interest point and source of food. I've never grown food before. I've never worked in a polytunnel before. I've never lived in Scotland before!

These tunnels are half poly half shade cloth, which is my first stumbling block - my thermometer reads the same 9 degrees C in and out of the tunnels. So what was the logic with the shade cloth? Should I immediately rip it out and install more poly?

One is also extremely water logged, so I am planning on raised beds.... But beyond this a bit overwhelmed. Any tips or advice would be extremely appreciated!!!

All the best,

Steph

 

[Tetters]

Welcome to the forum @stephsabird and welcome back to dear ol` Blighty too. The Scottish highlands is certainly a far cry from the Antipodes..... good old Kent might have made a reasonable stepping stone, it`s a bit warmer!
The main thing I would suggest with your tunnels is that you spend the winter cleaning up and planning. Trying to cover a tunnel in the winter is just about impossible. The new polythene (which is probably the best way to go) needs to be installed on a very warm day when there is NO wind.
We have just installed a second hand tunnel - in two parts. One covered in shade netting (really good for keeping butterflies such as cabbage whites off the brassicas) whilst still letting in the rain, and the other with tunnel polythene.

You will more than likely get benefit from watching some you tube videos on the subject, like we did. ''First tunnels'' made some very helpful videos, as did a few more people.
It would be really interesting to watch your progress, and I for one wish you lots of luck with your project.
It would be nice to see some photos if you could put them on here for us.

 

[stephsabird]

Thanks @Tetters the welcome's welcome!
So... would you suggest fully covering the tunnel is a better idea than the half and half currently in place?
I've spent the last week digging out rotten old potatoes and broccoli stems... from the looks of things, the last growers had a good go of it. But I just can't understand why they'd sacrifice the warmth for shade cloth.

I've just bought some winter cos lettuce seeds... so hoping I can start those out. I'd love to watch some videos but internet connection is so hard to get on this island! I'll post some pictures shortly...

Thanks so much for your response. Not many people I know have similar interests so it's great to chat with those who do! All the best with your second tunnel... What is a 'hand' tunnel if I may ask?

 

[stephsabird]

 

[stephsabird]

 

[stephsabird]

First and second poly tunnel... clump of weeds on bottom right of first poly, and odd bamboo fort, due to hibernating tortoise (belonging to my boss)

 

[Tetters]

That was supposed to be secondhand - you know, not new!!

Your photos are so much better to go by - I had imagined that one end was all poly and the other end was shade netting
The netting at the bottom can be a superb idea if you get a hot summer like the one just gone (down here in Kent anyway) and that would be there for ventilation - which is important for many crops.
You have it all done ! That tunnel would take a hell of a lot of covering - and several pairs of hands to complete. Whenever we covered on at the nursery where I used to work, we always started on a hot still day - and nearly every time the breeze would get up and the sun go behind a cloud that suddenly appeared!

For colder days, I suppose you could always use the timber strip to attach a second skin to the bottom bit and cover the draughty bit over until the sun comes out

I will ask Zigs to put on the pictures of our tunnels for you to have a look at (as he has better ones than I have) and we had to start from scratch, take one big one down from the sellers old nursery, cart it back home and re cover them both from scratch.

As an afterthought, we have shade netting on the doors of our polytunnel for ventilation purposes.

 

[Tetters]

I found this for you to look at https://www.northernpolytunnels.co....he-importance-of-air-flow-in-your-polytunnel/

 

[zigs]

Welcome to the forum

Some good tunnels there, best left as they are with the side ventilation. As Tetters said, you could always keep the draft out with something

These are our new ones...

 

[stephsabird]

Oh wow they look amazing! And what is that in the last one, blue sky?!

They are 'complete' but they have been a storage ground for old furniture and rubbish for several years so I've had a lot of cleaning up to do. The second one (completely empty) also had brambles grown throughout from outside the tunnel, so it's been a huge job. But they are looking much better. Seems to be a bit of a grey mould problem and lots of weeding to do of course. I've just bought a soil test kit as I read that the PH will be very important for some crops and I think we have quite acidic soil here if the rhododendron problem is anything to go by!

If we can get our Alaskan saw going I hope to get someone to help me make more planks to border the second tunnel and create raised beds. Then I just have to grow enough crops to fill all this space! Challenge accepted.

Yes I thought the bottom netting would be for airflow... but location considered I just thought that keeping a warmer temp would be more important! The wind is quite unforgiving here on the West coast. Thanks for the link, that seems like a good source for me. We have very spotty internet connection here so I've been relying a lot on books at the moment. I've read about using bubble wrap or even building mini polytunnels into beds to help with the temp.

Thanks so much for your help How long have you been growing in polytunnels?

 

[Tetters]

I started working in tunnels about 30 years ago when most of the time I was propagating shrubs and climbers. Those tunnels were massive, and during the heat of summer it was really impossible to work in the centre of a tunnel, for more than 10 minutes at a time.

The two little tunnels we have here at the moment are just the right ''hobby'' size.

I think with your tunnels the grey mould could create problems, and maybe disinfecting etc would be worth doing. It would be useful if you could find out what crops were in there before, and what problems could be lurking in the soil.
Rotating veggie crops can be crucial.

I understand that a big part of Scottie land is acid - so you may have to incorporate some lime. Why do you want raised beds? That would require such a lot of work - and where would the extra soil come from. Maybe digging in some grit and lime would be enough to amend the soil structure??


Your tunnels seem dark. Are they surrounded by trees? Does the sun manage to get in there when it does come through the clouds?
Without some sun you may be fighting a losing battle

 

[Tetters]

Been thinking about the mould for the last ten minutes..... and wondering if the soil in there is infested. I really hope not, but if there are spores in there just waiting to grow and colonise your plants it would be best to really think about it now rather than later on.
The ventilation net there suggests to me that there could have been a problem in the past.
Complete disinfecting and maybe even soil removal and replacement could be needed. Maybe you could work on getting some history on the subject - that would be my priority.

 

[stephsabird]

Interesting! The work I did in NZ was mainly outside, though they were building a glasshouse as I left. I can't imagine being inside one all day.

Hmm... Well, the raised beds idea is because the drainage is so bad - it's a problem throughout the whole island - from what I've read in several books raised beds can be a much easier solution than building drains around and within the tunnel. We get so much rain here and the tunnels are built on sloping land so the second tunnel, the one we are developing at the moment, has serious boggy mud going on with the rain. We've watched and with the angle, the rain is sloping right off the whoel tunnel and through the shade netting into the soil (hence my original idea of covering the netting). We will be building log plank pathways, similar to the first tunnel, and our idea was to take the mud from the cavity of these pathways into the beds to raise them up.

How would you go about 'disinfecting'? I know they grew potatoes, broccoli, beetroot, tomatoes because I've found markers. It does seem they were quite succesful from the remnants I've found. I have an idea of where the potatoes were but nothing else. No one here knows much about it! Yes, I've thought about liming the soil but the ph tester I have is giving me seriously inconsistent results so I'm a bit scared to do more damage!

There's some large trees to the right of the established polytunnel, but we just have a lot of cloud cover. The poly was covered in algae and debris when I arrived and I've given them a good wash down and repaired holes etc. The sun does get in nicely though, when it's around!

 

[Tetters]

Hello again Steph, I`m glad you got back here. It seems to me that you could do with a few tons of grit/sharp sand to incorporate into those beds. I can certainly now understand why you decided to raise them. Grit filled trenches on the outside of the tunnels at least on the high sides might also help some.

I have always used jeyes fluid for drenching and washing down. It wouldn`t hurt to do that after the beds are created. Jeyes fluid is the only disinfectant I know of for the job. Maybe once you have the beds sorted out you will be able to get a better result on the ph tester.

Finally, I wish you sunshine