Greenhouse or polytunnel, pros and cons for propagation and growing
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 5 дек 2018
- Which grows best plants, which is best for heat-loving plants, which suffers less pests, and which offers value for money.
I compare my wooden greenhouse (2013) and older (2002) polytunnel.
I sell books and a calendar from my website, with information about growing these and the timings you need, charlesdowding.co.uk/product-...
Follow me on Instagram charles_dowding, Twitter @charlesdowding and Facebook.
More about my growing history charlesdowding.co.uk/charles-...
My website has much information about no dig, for example charlesdowding.co.uk/start-here/
I have two online courses which include hundreds of photos and exclusive video content, for more information go to charlesdowding.co.uk/product-...
Videography at Homeacres 16th October 2018 by David Adams, editing by him also. 
Хобби
I swear I though I'm watching a TV gardening show, very well presented.
Nice to hear Don! You Tube is the new TV... (sometimes)
Polytunnel is practical and more affordable, but that greenhouse of yours is so Beautiful!! Thank you for the pros and cons of both, much appreciated!
I'm really happy to see that you're almost at 100,000 subscribers, and right before Christmas.
A few months into 2019 you should receive a new addition for your office wall. A silver play button from RUclips.
Well deserved, for being the best gardening channel on RUclips :)
Thanks for your nice comment, I look forward that!
Keeping several 55 gallon drums painted black and filled with water to absorb the small light in winter, really helped on the tunnel I had once. They would radiate back the heat at night and made a difference.
why do people paint them instead of just getting a black one? Does paint introduce unwanted chemicals into the water and then into your plant bed?
@@JNYC-gb1pp Generally its cost, you can get food-grade barrels/drums for really cheap, but they are usually blue (at least the ones near me). You paint them black on the outside and you can store heat from the sun, as black absorbs more of the energy. The water never touches the paint so no issue. Also if you use water-based paint generally they are non-toxic.
If you fear chemicals then I can't help you on that one.
In Southern Siberia, where we live, the vegetation period is less than 6 months, and greenhouses and poly-tunnels are a must to grow any vegs. So we always use water barrels inside.
We also build smaller cold-frames right on plant beds, and heat them with water-bottles until the threat of night-frosts is over.
Sending you my love as you go through this final journey with your dear mum. She is loved and in your care and that is the most important thing for her and for you. She will enjoy that delicious looking pot roast too xx
I'm new to poly tunnel and greenhouse gardening. I've always wanted one, so my wife found a poly tunnel kit we couldn't turn down but it is massive. Still wrapping my head around all of this but I'm in a better place than I was before now that I have it. Always a joy to watch your videos, Charles!
That sounds very exciting William, and a steep learning curve, which will also I am sure give you some lovely results.
You are such a inspiration Charles! You are one of the people who inspired us (2 young guys from Croatia) to start our own composting and no-dig market gardening practices here in sunny Dalmatia. We just posted first video just to get a hang of it and will make sure to post more on no dig market gardening, making compost, keeping chickens and much more.. Cheers everyone!
Lovely to hear and well done, that sounds so worthwhile.
I had Croatian tv here in October 2017 and they made a film about no dig, said it's popular in Croatia - Vrtlarica.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Nice! I saw Vrtlarica episodes, they are very nicely made and filled with broad content regarding gardening in general.
Hey Charles just want to say a massive thank you for bringing your NO Dig to us all and showing how it works. It so works! Thank you. All your time and effort are so appreciated. You have inspired me to document my No Dig efforts on RUclips with my own channel!. Keep doing what you are doing... thank you so much. Tony
Tony C Smith Hi tony ! Been following your videos too ! Love what your doing keep up the good work 👍🏼
Thanks and well done Tony
Chiropractors don't like no dig; terrible for their business.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I love the no dig.
I am planning on building a green house/ high tunnel in the spring, thanks for the talking about the differences.
Great video. Thanks for your teaching, work, and knowledge.
I've been wanting to add a greenhouse structure to my garden. Thank you for sharing the differences between yours.
All that natural good food, must help with all the energy! you have Your channel is an education to even us older gardeners, wish I found it sooner
Great share Charles, enjoy your calm approach to your viddos( still reminding me of Sir David Attenborough ) Great info sharing, thankyou.
I've just bought my first ever polytunnel, thanks to your wonderful advice when Alison and I came on your course in September. I can't wait to get started with it.
Well done Paul and happy cropping
I'm a fan of green houses, I've worked with Poly Tunnels in the past on a commercial farm. The draw back of Poly Tunnels is that they're prone to collapsing in areas that have regular high winds or snowfall. Yes greenhouses are more expensive, but they last longer and are far easier to maintain.
Not always. I have a Greenhouse and Polly tunnel. My Polly is 6 years old now and has had no damage whatsoever, whilst in that same timescale I've had a aluminium and glass greenhouse that lost 30% of its panels in 3 years so was replaced with an aluminium and polycarbonate one which blew away the first winter and now a aluminium and poly one that's been especially designed for high wind areas which has sill had the door and a window blown off (the window got so smashed up that its now unusable). I also find keeping the poly tunnel clean a lot easier than the greenhouse
@@dave4728 you should build your greenhouse 1 meter down with a geothermal system and windbreaks that are far enough away to avoid casting shade on your greenhouse. That way you should reduce the damage you'll take from high winds. To negate the loss of light from building the greenhouse deeper than the soil level, you'll need a northern wall that reflects light back down onto the beds.
I feel your pain though, I am in an area where 130k/ph storms are basically a yearly occurrence now and there isn't much land or forest to protect us from the more regular 80kph or more winds that tend to really make growing and owning any kind of building difficult. We will be reinforcing our greenhouse when we build it with more wind-resistant materials.
There's a guy in Alliance, Nebraska that does the geothermal greenhouse really well if you want to look into it. there's a youtube video of it. He grows citrus in an area where it reaches -40C
The man, the legend, Charles Dowding.
Cheers Paulus
Gush I was going to say tomatoes in December, ah ok this vid was made in October. My poly tunnels are full of lettuces and chinese cabbages. Juste finished eating our last melon (old variety, boule d'or) this week, it was juicy and sweet, amazing, I shall grow a lot more next year. Many many thanks I always loved gardening but with your method I love it even more. Love and light
Lovely to hear from you Patricia and Joyeux Noel with many lettuce leaves!
I've started with an allotment first time this year in March and find your videos so helpful including this one - thank you.
Happy to hear this Richard, good luck with your allotment
CONGRATULATIONS on reaching 101k subscribers just 6 days after you released this video!!!
Well deserved.
Many thanks, yes it's been busy lately
The best comparative out there and I've watched so many ppl explain! Yet, now I truly and finally understand. Thank you Sir Charles.
Great to hear!
Hi Charles. Thank you for the tour of your tunnel and greenhouse. We use hog panels and poly pipe to build tunnels, I also have a greenhouse, both have their different uses. I have not done winter gardening before, for some reason I shy away from it. I might give it a try next year. Thank you again for the info. Have a great day.
Great overview, Charles! We eventually settled on a greenhouse with aluminium frame (we're not allowed to put in a foundation on our plot). It’s our second winter having a greenhouse and already we’re making a much better use of the space. But there’s always room for improvement, so thank you for all the inspiration!
Nice to hear that Vera and well done.
No foundation is better for the soil!
Thanks Charles for your videos I have watched many over a couple of years now. I always learn a lot and apply much of the information into my own garden, along with a few other people that I think have the same weather patterns to us in the most southern part of New Zealand, here in Invercargill.Keep up the good work, always enjoy the content, thank you so much.
Thanks Diane, you are in Scottish-climate NZ!
Invaluable information, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!
Happy in that, thanks
Wonderful, thank you for that comprehensive overview of both :-)xo
Nice comparison, thanks for this one.
This is again a great information . I"ve been listening very carefully Charles☺
Thank you for this great information it is well needed! We have a polytunnel too. On one side the door is always open, but on the other side there is no opening. The last years we had quite an issue with spider mites. Now that I have seen your video, I wonder if the lack of ventilation made it extra comfortable for the mites....I think we will put an opening in the opposite side of the door as you have it in your polytunnel as well. Petra
Just a quick comment about ventilation and the gap on top of the tunnel....here in Minnesota USA, last week our temperature has been -55F with the windchill(-53C) with -29F (-34C) real temperature, growing in an unheated tunnel here in the winter is virtually impossible, let alone having an air gap for ventilation, that is pretty much normal for us in January here kn MN. It would require double layer of plastic cover, then an enclosure inside, and a cover over the crop, to possibly, maybe, grow a cool season crop. This just a quick update on what other gardeners are confronted with in other parts of the world....love your channel and enjoy watching all the individual details of your presentations.
Thanks for the info tennenbaum, wow what a difference and a challenge.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you for your kind reply...we're still experiencing temperatures in the single digits (F) at night with -25 F windchills, and we have about 4 ft. of snow on the ground, and mountains of it left and right of the driveway to our house. Luckily we have a heavy duty snow plow which blows it up and away very efficiently. We will plant out end of May, (Memorial Day), as the soil isn't warm enough until then, and we still get freezes in May. Your videos showing indoor seed starting are helpful and I use your sowing techniques, then everything goes under racks with growlights until they can be hardened off and planted. Planning this process is important, so we ard ready to plant out as soon as possible, because we have a relatively short growing season. We can see our first frost middle to end of September and from there the cycle gets colder and colder until the next year about this time. I do plan to install a greenhouse this spring...hoping I can extend the growing season a little bit longer and starting sooner in Spring.
,
I built my polytunnel using 40mm plastic waste pipe a wooden frame all way round its about 4.5m wide by 6m the 40mm plastic waste pipe makes the hops fixed to the wooden frame. this is my 3rd generation of polytunnel. The last 2 I buried the plastic but found it hard to get a consistent good tension on the plastic. So this time i made a baserail that I can tension myself from inside. The plastic starts a foot of the ground and used black woven weed membrane buried in to the soil to help it breathe a little bit better. with to doors either end. o and I wrapped all the wooden posts in shrinkwrap parcel wrap below ground to prevent rotting. It all works very will cost about £400 about 3 years ago.
You are a craftsman Adrian
Here in the U.S.A. i have 2 poly tunnels. I and many others that have polytunnels use z channel and wiggle wire to hold our plastic in place. You screw the z channel to the wood or metal and then stretch your plastic a few inches below the z channel and then put the wiggle wire in the z channel and it holds the plastic in place. I grow in Tennessee, which is upper south east U. S. It can get pretty warm here in the summer. My sides go up about 4 ft before curving to the other side. Using the Z channel and wiggle wire i can take the plastic down on each side and also a opening about 10 ft wide and 7 ft high on each end. Then i can grow tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and other warm weather crops in it. Put the plastic back on late fall and grow spinach, lettuce, beets carrots, etc in the fall and winter and early spring. It is not hard to take down the plastic and put back up. Does not take a lot of time either. I do not know if you have access to anything like that in the UK. One polytunnel is 16x34 and the other is 24x 48. I really do like them very much. Here is a link to where you can take a look at it if interested or curious. www.buildmyowngreenhouse.com/wigglewirepolylock.aspx
Great informative video, good explanation of the pros and cons.
I built a greenhouse out of a wooden frame but used polycarbonate instead of glass I've got the problem you mentioned regarding footballs flying about.
Always enjoy watching!
Happy to see your video❤ this is exactly what I need! I love gardening
Glad it was helpful and good luck
What a well-made, brilliantly explained video! Thanks so much.
You're very welcome!
Just love watching your videos Charles, there’s always plenty to take on board! That’s why with your knowledge you raking I. The subscribers, keep up the good work and look forward to your next video, happy Christmas to you all at “Home acres”
Thanks David and yes, close to 100k!
Looking really good can’t wait to see what you bring to the table next year. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, regards Gary & Ben
Cheers Gary and Baen
Great video Charles, a nice laid back easy to listen to video. Cheers.
Glad you enjoyed it Paul
Great video and good comparison - as always! My greenhouse is somewhat of a hybrid between the two - permanent metal structure with vertical walls, but polythene cover. An essential part of the garden in a cooler climate.
Not really essential, but damn handy.
Essential for the cool temperate market gardener perhaps.
Hi Charles - Thanks for your many informative videos. I am in my second season of no dis and love it. Here in the U.S.A. i have 2 poly tunnels. I and many others that have polytunnels use z channel and wiggle wire to hold our plastic in place. You screw the z channel to the wood or metal and then stretch your plastic a few inches below the z channel and then put the wiggle wire in the z channel and it holds the plastic in place. I grow in Tennessee, which is upper south east U. S. It can get pretty warm here in the summer. My sides go up about 4 ft before curving to the other side. Using the Z channel and wiggle wire i can take the plastic down on each side and also a opening about 10 ft wide and 7 ft high on each end. Then i can grow tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and other warm weather crops in it. Put the plastic back on late fall and grow spinach, lettuce, beets carrots, etc in the fall and winter and early spring. It is not hard to take down the plastic and put back up. Does not take a lot of time either. I do not know if you have access to anything like that in the UK. One polytunnel is 16x34 and the other is 24x 48. I really do like them very much. Here is a link to where you can take a look at it if interested or curious. www.buildmyowngreenhouse.com/wigglewirepolylock.aspx
Alan I am grateful for your comment, and your crops sound amazing.
I had somehow not heard of wiggle wire and it looks really good, I have found it's available in the UK www.northernpolytunnels.co.uk/w-wire-wiggle-wire-polythene-fixing-system.html
Another great video, Charles. I currently have winter salads, spring onions, elephant garlic and broad beans in my polytunnel.
Nice
Thanks for the tips. Still can't decide.
Thank you for the great comparison! I was just thinking of this last week. I decided on a poly tunnel but might rethink if I can find a small metal greenhouse structure. Thanks again for your help.
Thanks Denise
Very useful and interesting video, thanks! 🙏
Yes i have a polytunnel. Great video
Thank you Charles.
Thank you Mr Dowding
Thank you Charles... enjoyed listening to you! )))
Cheers Gary
Thank you for this video! I purchased both, but I think I'll put up the polytunnel first due to lack of time and my greenhouse needs a concrete foundation before I install it. Love your videos.
Thanks and I hope it goes well
Excellent video! 😊
This is an impressive video, in terms of presentation, filming and content. Well done, I'm now a subscriber and will be watching for tips on my new allotment.
Welcome aboard Ban, exciting times ahead
Hey Charles. Nice comparisons. I passed on your no dig home and garden book to one of the local park rangers. He seems really enthused about your work now. Just doing my bit to get word out! 👍
Well done Tim!
Some good information. Thanks
I love the hoop house that my husband made..it's small but the plants love it..it's made with fencing,rebar,& greenhouse film..got greenhouse film on Amazon..he had to put windows in it..temp got up to 100F..stays around 80F..holds up well to wind because it's behind old truck..film not buried..thankyou for showing your structures 👍🙏✝️
That is awesome, nice team work!
cracking video once again well done
you can use a diesel or gas heater to add co2 and bring up the winter temps..and you should add a large solar fan.
We reskinned a hoop shed in poly and simply threw ropes over in between the hoops. Rope is connected to ground anchors and wiggle track on the ends to hold poly on the edge. Has been working great all year despite heavy storms!
I like the improvisation, hope that in winter wind the rope is not abrasive on the plastic. Or I imagine you could remove it until spring.
Very good job!! Thank you very much for information, hi from, Bavaria, south Germany,
Thankyou Markus.
I was in Weinheim recently and enjoyed the visit.
Hi Charles .i have a pollytumnal 10ft/6ft .i was going to change it and get greenhouse but after watching your video i think i will keep my pollytumnal. Thank you for the good information.
A pleasure Sajad.
thanks for the tips!
I think it may be the wood that holds in the heat overnight, rather than the glass. Not only is wood a good insulator, it's also good at absorbing/storing heat and releasing it over night.
Good point
Im just starting ut this year growing my own veg, had enough of supermarket rubbish, quite jealous of your yields, i know i have a lot to learn but am watching lots of videos to help with the learning process and am hoping for some success this year !
Well done Nick I am sure you will enjoy worthwhile harvests and notice the fine flavours. Plus feel healthier for the great microbes.
Your greenhouse is so beautiful
Great videos! Thank you!
Excellent, Charles, to hear the comparison of the two types! Here in the NW Arizona desert I've built a wood-framed permanent green house with polycarbonate roof and sides with double-paned house windows for the northside and east and west sides to let heat out, also a large 4x7 front door that is solid wood, able to open all day for summer ventilation. But like many greenhouses, they're soon TOO SMALL!, so I plan on attaching a smaller one to the west side where the yard wooden fence (redwood) can act as the westside while the eastdide wall it already the existing greenhouse, so all I have to build is the front and back, north and south walls, with doors in each...all same materials, with rain gutters for collecting water off the polycarbonate, which last rain was crystal clean, great-tasting, cold water collected in a bin, drinkable immediately! I just need more space for propagating seedlings over the coldest winter months. It's GREAT to have your expertise, when deciding what materials to use for each purpose. Because of the high winds 4x year as the seasons blow in and out, I shall avoid the hoop-style house altogether, opting for the wood structure since the golfer moved OUT of the NEIGHBORHOOD, finally! LOL!
Haha yes too small Margaret. Such a different climate you have!
Excellent advice and thank you .
Thank you so much. I've been thinking about buying a greenhouse and I have been pointed every which way. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I had heard you talking about greenhouses. Now I know what I am getting (what I always secretly wanted) - a greenhouse made with safety glass. I no longer have a large area and a greenhouse would be fun; if my tomatoes succeed I'll be delighted. If it goes wrong, then it goes wrong - but oh I look forward to giving it a go!
This sounds great Teresa
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thank you. Your videos are the subjects of many conversations!
Really appreciate your openness about the costs of the structures says a lot about yourself and your values.. I’m sure if I met you face to face you’d tell me your bank balance as I would tell you mine.. anyone watching who wouldn’t / can’t POSSIBLY has too much…………….
😂 this makes me smile. Thanks
Wow wonderful I like it Thank you about your video.Have a great day💐👍🌺😀✈️
I paused this video at 7:34, came back a minute later and suddenly realized how the hanging gardens of Babylon must have worked. Nice tomatoes vines!
Thank you Charles
Fantastic information delivered impeccably, as usual, thank you.
However, one thing to mention is that toughened glass is actually less tough than ordinary glass. The toughening process is a heat treatment that locks stress into the glass so that, if it breaks, it breaks into small fragments rather than big sharp pieces. It’s a safety feature and should be used wherever there’s any risk of breakage.
If you want truly tougher glass then using thicker plate in the answer. If you want safe glass use ‘toughened’ glass and if you want both then use thicker toughened glass 😊 And thank you again for all the good work you do👍
Thank you so much for this clarification. I think that my greenhouse does have thick, toughened glass because it is really solid. I see your point though about how it breaks, when it breaks!
Your wooden glasshouse is a really beautiful structure to look at and be in charles and is a lifetime job , polytunnels are very affordable and def do the job.
With being in a trade i was able to build my own this year with wood frame and polycarb sheet .
So true! And congratulations, that sounds cool
Thank you Charles, your enthusiasm for gardening is infectious and inspiring. We are starting our first garden next year in Canada and while some things you talk about just aren't possible in our climate, we're happy to hear about new ideas and concepts to keep us thinking critically about our unique problems.
Plus as a brit myself, your very quintessentially british manner reminds me of home. Thank you and we look forward to seeing what new ideas strike you in the future!
That is funny, best of luck with the winter
Great video! Thank you so much! I need a greenhouse so badly, growing as much as I do here in fl. During the summer can be a huge struggle with fungal and pest diseases. We are unable to grow things like squash, cucumbers and big leaf plants here, which really stinks..lol. this cedar one is beautiful, but I think I'll stick with the cheaper ones, at least for now. lol always such a pleasure watching you! I feel at peace now🤗
Many thanks Stacey, hope you fid a good greenhouse!
@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you so much! I would probably invest in 2, one for homesteading our own food and the other I want to use so I can move foward with my non-profit organization and my future business plans🤗 I sure can't wait!
What part of FL? I grew up on a farm in the panhandle and squash, cukes, etc. grow like weeds in that area. I have never had one, but would think a greenhouse would increase the chance of fungal disease in a hot, humid climate. If you are in South Florida, you might have better luck with squash, etc., in the non--summer months? Good luck!
ETA. I googled this and maybe it will be helpful. Another very good resource is your county extension agent. gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/edibles/vegetables/summer-squash.html
Thanks Charles, Iv not decided if I want a Polly Tunnel or a green house. I don't grow anything after Octobor because the low sun gets blocked by trees.
I now have a lot of lettuce seedlings to prick out before they get too leggy, they germinate surprisingly easily even in a cold frame. (which has occasionally reached over 70 in the first week of March) 😀
White tape would be a MUST in the Arizona desert, where outside temps get up to 115+. Love all your setups, Charles. Carry on!
Good point Margaret and I hope you are all ok in that crazy heat
@@CharlesDowding1nodig It IS crazy, Charles, especially when for the past 2 years we've had tremendous DROUGHT, but it did rain well 2 nights ago, and the new polycarbonate roof on my 2x4-built greenhouse yields the clearest drinking water, overnight I reaped 64 gallons on it in SECONDS as it poured off my rooves: 16x12 and 12x12 greenhouses, both with polycarbonate roofing, which is GREAT! For shade I put woodscrews inside of them through cotton painter's drop cloths, and that lets sunlight through and never rots...never getting wet either. Arizona had NO MONSOONS in our area last year at all. The Western US is under serious drought and you ought to see Hoover Dam, lowest EVER, in my lifetime! I still do always enjoy your videos! I sort of envy your rainfall altogether! My banana plants are growing speedily, and if they make it through next Winter, I will plant them outside next Spring so they can bloom into fruiting....for 2022. I shall add that I bought cloth screens for my door openings in summer that keep insects out - I had a huge infestation of wasps coming and going in and out so I had to buy these screens held closed by magnets. In Winter the solid door can close while the screens are installed on the inside of the jams. I just walk through them as the magnets close them behind me. Perfect for a greenhouse and cheap to buy on Amazon or elsewhere.
U much better than our professor's
I continue to watch and rewatch you and a few others and always go away learning a thing or two. I struggled with taking out tomatoes this fall to plant greens for winter. I see the answer in you hoop house, I was not pruning my tomatoes up high enough to allow light to reach the ground. Lesson learned. Thank you good man, or is it good on you mate?, ( a phrase I heard in Hobart Tasmania)
Cheers Jerri, nice to hear either phrase!
Awesome Video
Encouraging me to Dig? Sir I don’t have a spade 😂.
I can't really deside what to choose, so I will probably build me something in betwen! (Wooden framed polytunnel with straight walls 6' high). 6' * 24'.
But not this year! That will have to wait another year. This year I will build some hotbeds / seedbeds, just to get ahead on next season.
Surprised me about getting frost in the polytunnel Charles! Not that I have one (No structures allowed on our allotments.
Keep up the good work.
Steve
We don't even get frost AT ALL (35° S and near the sea) so it was certainly a surprise to hear the poly tunnel at Homeacres frosts! Very different climates make for delightfully different gardens! Thank you Charles for sharing.
Love your work 😁
Thank you! 😊
Dear Charles, thank you for sharing your amazing garden and experiences. I´m a long term fan of your cannel, looking forward and be happy for you when you reach 100.000 follower. That could be better if people like and be encouraged to do organic and no dig gardening. Have a nice christmas time and go on! Greetings from Germany Manuela
Thanks Manueal and I loved being in Germany this week, lovely people
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I saw that you were in Witzenhausen, wonderful ecologic university. And you visit a SoLaWi. By the way I have an urban homestead garden with a vegetable rooftopgarden and chickens and I am a lecturer for agriculture at the university in Weihenstephan-Freising. Maybe once we could invite you too :-) So have a nice garden time and a lot of motivated students!!! Manuela
Roll on February start off the chillies growing
Lovely video, it really helped my thinking on the topic, thank you.
As a retired lighting engineer, I’ve got a little tip for you in small return; You will marginally increase the efficiency of your timber greenhouse if you paint the internal timber white. This will reduce the amount of light energy absorbed as heat by the timber frame and reflect that light to provide additional illumination to your plants.
This will be even more beneficial in winter, when the sun resides at a lower incidence and there is less direct light through the planes and more light hitting the sides of the timber roof and frame components.
Matt white is more efficient than gloss as it provides better diffusion (which is poorly understood as people seem to presume that anything shiny is best).
Many thanks!
On the other hand, I do like the look of the wood! Interesting about matt rather than gloss, I would not have thought.
@@CharlesDowding1nodig I’m absolutely delighted to be able to impart a little bit of what I know, to a man who has taught me so much down the years 👍
Gloss finishes introduce hot spots and cold spots and a Matt finish provides an even distribution of reflected light.
White is the most efficient colour as it reflects the full spectrum, of course. Black absorbs all of the spectrum and, for this purpose, green is no better than black because green absorbs all parts of the spectrum except those that your plants can’t absorb (as plants act similarly, absorbing all parts of the spectrum and similarly reflecting green).
My grandmother had a sun lounge made of cedar wood and I remember the wood had a lovely smell. I expect your greenhouse has too.
Yes indeed!
It’s no dig in the Polytunnel as well, I was thinking about using a raised bed in the Polytunnel I just had (just got to level the ground when it stops raining) I think I won’t bother now
Thanks for another great video Charles - wonder if you saw Curtis Stone greenhouse - same issue with light so he painted it all white - amazing improvement.
How funny, thanks, I could not bear to do that however! (I like the natural look of wood)
The light in the poly tunnel is more dispersed,rather then straight like in the glass structures
Hello Charles. I am a new subscriber, but have heard of you through the gardening grapevine, so to speak. Interesting video. It's good to see someone putting a polytunnel up properly by digging a trench..:) Anyway, I remember being in my grandads allotment when I was a bairn and his greenhouse, as was most greenhouses back then , was built on a brick base. Over the years I have found that bricks will retain the heat from the sun for up to 70% of the night. My granda's greenhouse had 2 leek trenches made from bricks attached to the outside wall/base of the greenhouse.
Cheers Dave, nice memories
Love Love Love your channel. Would you mind sharing more of where you purchased the plans for your greenhouse? Thank you
Thank you, and I do not have the plans because it was constructed by Woodpecker Joinery, who are based in the UK and they have a website, it's 12 x 25'
Great information! Thanks for sharing
I reckon the heat resistant white tapes on the hoops of the polytunnel are for more southern climates like texas
Nice. I live at latitude 51,7333, so I hope, I can adapt a lot of Your hints. ;D
Charles encouraging us to dig, was not expecting that! Interesting comparison of wood with glass and poytunnel, I guess aluminium is a compromise between the two? Great video as always, thanks.
Yes aluminium would be better for growing
@@CharlesDowding1nodig Thanks, I guess that with glass and a thinner frame it would be the most efficient but would have a larger cost to consider compared with polytunnel. You have got us all thinking about the most efficient method.
We opted for both. In fact we have 3 aluminium 2x 6x8ff & 1x 10x6ft greenhouses and a polytunnel 10x20ft. I had chance of wooden but after Charles explained about the lower light levels and the obvious cost, aluminium was a no brainer. I had reservations about digging a trench for the polythene, but I think the small amount of disturbance for 5-8 years polythene life is a good balance. Polytunnel does have the slight disadvantage of weather damage, snow and wind. But greenhouses are not immune. Best thing I have found with greenhouses is to use a "foundation" of timber - I use 8x2" ground contact treated or wrapped in DPM. Great for levelling and gives about 6" extra height... we cannot have brick based greenhouses on our allotment site... this is my cheeky workaround ;)
@@0skar9193 I like your cheeky workaround! And like you I would have no worries about a bit of digging for years of polytunnel life. I think the balance is a cheaper poytunnel or more expensive aluminium, the wood is probably third choice because of the cost and the thicker frames blocking the light. From your experience what would you choose ?
The greenhouse is indeed beautiful as it is but in regard to the light, if the wood was painted white, would that increase the light in the greenhouse? I guess the difference with aluminium will not be so big anymore.
You could possibly paint your timber white on the inside of the greenhouse - it might help with light reflection??! Wouldn't look as nice though I guess!!
Sir, Mr. Charels Dowdind are you an actor, if not You should have been. You have beautifully explained, the one rustic greenhouse Ceder structure and the one cheaper and popular Ploy sheet greenhouse, the Tomatoes are an excellent comparison, both tomatoes, and the eggplant hanging from the roof looks like Christmas tree ornaments. Eggplants and tomatoes are excellent companions, Eggplant Italian cooking is popular in the western world but the eggplant Cooked in spices and tomatoes east Indian way, that is a good one, no meat no cheese, still good over the rice Thanks and Wishes to you Paramasivam
Nice of you to say Paramasivan :)
We cover our 8 x 3 raised beds with hoop houses, basically Minnie Polly tunnels. Make sure you get the better quality PVC pipe as it can snap. And we find that for cold hardy plants the hoop houses don’t prevent Frost, but they help warm enough that a lot of our plants over winter and we can harvest throughout the winter, and get a Headstart in spring
You are well organised, nice results