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Polytunnel advice

connie77connie77 Posts: 151
in Problem solving

Hi i have recently got a polytunnel, just ine of those green plastic ones & i made a bed and planted up healthy tomatoe plants, opened my vents as advised but they keep dying? I have taken the plot on as a half plot on an allotment, i have no idea what was in the bed before as the old sod ( believe me he is!) who had to give it up won't tell me? He is just waiting for me to fail & go away i think? Which i have no intention of doing, so any advice regards growing in a polytunnel would be apprrciated thanks 

Posts

  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093

    It's probably getting much colder in there than you might guess. Polytunnels don't keep the heat in nearly as well as greenhouses. I have toms in my polytunnel but still in pots with protection these cold nights.

    If you think the soil may be an issue, try growing them in pots initially and see if you still have a problem.

    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • Pete.8Pete.8 Posts: 11,340

    Tomato plants don't respond well when temperatures fall below 13c.
    If you've had temperatures below that it may well cause the problems you have.
    I wouldn't put a tom outside until sometime in June here in essex.

    However, I have a little patch of tomato seedlings growing in a flower bed from a tomato discarded last year, they're only 2" but they've managed to keep going despite frosts.


    Billericay - Essex

    Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
    Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
  • TopbirdTopbird Posts: 8,355

    Agree - it's almost certainly too cold for toms in an unheated polytunnel. Depends where you are in the country of course - but I don't think anywhere has had night temperature regularly above 10C which is what tomatoes need.

    They need to be cossetted in a warmer environment for a couple more weeks yet.

    Invest in a maximum / minimum thermometer which will tell you how hot and how cold your polytunnel is getting. Most plants dislike extremes of either.

    Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
  • connie77connie77 Posts: 151

    Ok , thanks for that advice, i am in west Yorkshire,  connie

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