My understanding is that tomatoes and peppers have similar requirements - although peppers need a bit more heat?
Cucumbers and Melons both share the same requirements - more heat than tomatoes and more humidity than peppers and tomatoes?
My polytunnel has a raised bed running down one side - the tomatoes need to go at the back, and I'm planning on planting the peppers in front of them. I've put soil heating cables in the soil around the peppers to give them a heat boost on cooler nights. I've put hoops over them so they can be fleeced if necessary, trapping in the heat from the soil warming cables. I figure this will also give a bit of extra heat to the tomatoes at night.
On the other side I have a bench heated with soil cables. My plan is to put a polythene divider in to increase the humidity in the area over the bench, and to use the soil heating cables as required. I plan to put the cantaloupe melons and cucumbers in containers, on the bench.
It's all running on solar so free energy!
Does this sound like a good plan? I'm in Scotland - so cool climate. We're just scrape by with 10 degrees C in July / Aug at night. In June we often don't make it. So we really do need the extra heat from cables. It's more than warm enough during the day.
The long side is South South East facing, with the back next to the white wall of the house. So it gets plenty of sun up until about 5pm. The sun is high in the sky all day, so cucumbers and melons won't shade the tomatoes. I don't think the extra layer of polythene will cut down light to tomatoes as, again, the sun is high in the sky and most comes from above.
Is this likely to work?
Cucumbers and Melons both share the same requirements - more heat than tomatoes and more humidity than peppers and tomatoes?
My polytunnel has a raised bed running down one side - the tomatoes need to go at the back, and I'm planning on planting the peppers in front of them. I've put soil heating cables in the soil around the peppers to give them a heat boost on cooler nights. I've put hoops over them so they can be fleeced if necessary, trapping in the heat from the soil warming cables. I figure this will also give a bit of extra heat to the tomatoes at night.
On the other side I have a bench heated with soil cables. My plan is to put a polythene divider in to increase the humidity in the area over the bench, and to use the soil heating cables as required. I plan to put the cantaloupe melons and cucumbers in containers, on the bench.
It's all running on solar so free energy!
Does this sound like a good plan? I'm in Scotland - so cool climate. We're just scrape by with 10 degrees C in July / Aug at night. In June we often don't make it. So we really do need the extra heat from cables. It's more than warm enough during the day.
The long side is South South East facing, with the back next to the white wall of the house. So it gets plenty of sun up until about 5pm. The sun is high in the sky all day, so cucumbers and melons won't shade the tomatoes. I don't think the extra layer of polythene will cut down light to tomatoes as, again, the sun is high in the sky and most comes from above.
Is this likely to work?