My £50 polytunnel from eBay

An update:

I've been using it to protect my potato bags, germinate seeds and bring on plants germinated in my heated greenhouse, but most of that stuff is now in coldframes and the bags are outside ready to come back in if/when required.



My staging can take 48 seed trays, but if full I can always germinate multi-tiered for a while.



I'm thinking of adding another top shelf above the staging that will be contructed the same way as beneath - removable panels that fit between fixed rails (look back a few posts) so I can easily remove it when growing tomatoes up to the top.

I also been sowing in mushroom boxes lined with weed control fabric and with a piece of poly dpm in the base to get a greater depth for radishes, mini-carrots, mini-beetroot, etc., but I don' seem to have a pic.

And a few constructional details:

The bottom of the vertical tubes sitting in short lengths of steel pipe fixed to the vertical timbers. This will make it easy to take down if required (another missing pic!). It can't lift up as there are metal straps holding it in place and these are covered with tape where in contact with the cover.





The timber framing has mouse anti-climb bands made of poly dpm fixed with staples to prevent mice from getting on the staging and eating the germinating seeds.



The advantage of having edging around the beds is that I can mound up the soil around the cover an extra 125mm or so around the outside, but I don't have to completely fill them on the inside, so I don't lose much growing height and I don't lose any headroom in what's a small tunnel.



Next job is to sort out those borders to get some tomato plants in. I've got loads of cherry plums that were bought bare rooted and put in pots coming on to plant as a windbreaks.

 

My £50 (£49.99) polytunnel appears to have increased in price to £96.99! (incl p&p).

 

they are still selling them,ive just put a 99p bid on one thats got 23hrs to go on it hope i get it for a fiver bargain at £50 thou x

 

I haven't even finished my first one yet, and I was bidding on another yesterday evening. 'Had it' with a £47 bid up until the last 30 mins or so. Oh well, I'll keep on trying......

Saw some the same size as Steve R's (6 x 3m) going for £125 a few days ago, and that almost tempted me.


I've increased my staging by installing a top shelf one side. My runner & french beans are germinating really well up there. I can now get 25 seed trays each side at lower level and another 13 on the top shelf (even more if turned round the other way with a slight overhang). Plus I've got the two raised beds at the bottom either side of the path:



There is a 100mm wide rail (pallet slats) at the back of that high shelf so the slats ends don't rub and wear the polythene. Unlike the lower staging I have bothered making it with removable slatted panels as it's probably high enough to be out the way of toms in the raised bed border down below.

I'm trying to decide whether to put yet more staging in at the end (over the barrel), or to cut some polythene out and add a mesh panel with an automatic closer fixed to an opening sheet of polycarbonate over it - it gets very hot early of a morning before I open it up.

 

I've been watching the prices steadily increase since we bought ours, more to do with the growing season approaching and getting under way than anything else...I think/hope. We'll be getting a second one for next year but will wait untill winter hopefully drives the price back down to sensible money.

I'm surprised that just leaving a vent open overnight does not keep it cool enough for you?

Steve...

 

My £50 Polyunnel from e Bay

Closing the vents up for a cold night results in 8°C min overnight and over 30°C (80 - 90°F) by 8:00 am the next morning. Putting any form of heating in there would require me to get there earlier otherwise it'd be way over 100°F with the heater and sun combined. Must start keeping some max/min internal/external records.

 

Scrungee, what an absolutely brilliant polly tunnel you've built. I only came across the thread last night, but I read on in awe, at how you built and developed it. So much so, that I'm now scouring evilbay for something similar. Might leave it until Winter though, let the prices come down a tad! :OUCH:

Do keep us updated when you can, on how your produce grows, I'm really keen to know how you get on with it.

Bravo!

 

hi.what do u use for frame for poly to go over.

 

Geuss what I've just got - yes another polytunnel, identical to the other one, but I got it for ONLY £40!

I thought it would be prudent after all the work I've put in (still bits to finish off) to get a spare cover to both extend the life of the tunnel (don't know the lifetime of those reinforced plastic covers?) and in case of some disaster. The cover I bought from eBay duly arrived, but 2 days later Parcel Force left a card saying they'd left a parcel at the village post office. As I wasn't expecting anything I started wondering what it could be, but when I saw a familiar box behind the counter I started to realise what could be in it - yes a second polytunnel cover.

Being an honest person, I contacted the seller to explain he'd sent two covers when I'd only ordered and paid for one. But I did see there might be a way I could get a second polytunnel (I'd already decided to get a second one to put up next spring) a bit cheaper, so I asked not only about arrangements for return of his cover, but whether he had any spare frames to combine with it at a cost that would make the outcome financially beneficial to both of us - if you don't ask you don't get.

And honesty is obviously the best policy - I was told I could keep (free of charge) the second cover sent in error and I could buy a frame for it for £40 incl P&P. It arrived this morning, so I've got a whole polytunnel (just checked all the bits) for only £40!

So I've now got two 4.5 x 2 m polytunnels + a spare cover. I've been hunting in skips for more stuff to fit out the second one identical to the first. It's going to be much easier second time round. Got enough carpet for central paths in both of them yesterday. So now I'm thinking of where can a third one go .....

The polytunnel comes as both a steel tubular frame that fits together rather like one for a garden gazebo and comes complete with a cover made from mesh reinforced light green sheet PVC. This is the frame from the one I've just aquired, but lots of suppliers are in the process of changing to larger diameter galvanised steel frames.

 

Now virtually all of the seed/cell trays and pots have gone from the polytunnel, I've finally got around to finishing off the border beds and planting them up with tomatoes, a couple of cucumbers (at the end either side of that mesh panel), plus some self blanching celery and chillies near the door end (out of view).



And that is a fishing net across the water barrel, not for fish, but for removing both nice flying and nasty stinging insects.

Although I've tied the canes to the rails where the staging panels have been removed, I'm looking for some cheap screw eyes to provide a better means of fixing them next time.

The removable seat made from a piece of pallet slat notched at both ends was Mrs Scrungee's idea, and two of them will live on the top shelf for use when it rains.

Removable staging panels ready to be taken into store for the winter (after I've treated them with some preservative).



Which just leaves me to start on the second, indentical poly tunnel some time before the summer's over ....

 

Nice one, will you put them end to end? When we get our second tunnel we plan to make 1 x 45 ft tunnel from 2 x 20footers, then ditch these crappy covers in favour of a proper polythene one.

Steve...

 

I was thinking of placing it paralell to the first tunnel, one metre away from it and covering the ground between (and all other perimeters) with woven polypropylene weed control fabric, with old doormats (already using one) at the entrances to avoid wear and tear. Did you notice I stole your idea of carpetting the internal path?

If I placed them end to end they would extend beyond the shelter of an adjoining large shed and tree. I'm working up details of some kind of porch arrangement, either individual or shared that would allow me to permanently leave the zippered 'doors' up without reducing overall ventilation.

P.S. Steve R, if you're going to ditch the covers, have you considered the 'frame only' option for the extension?

 

I did not notice that, I find any photo's smaller than the size I post myself (800 pixels longest edge) infuriatingly difficult to see/view, it's even difficult in some of my shots to see detail.

I had not considered the frame only option, indeed I have not seen any for sale yet. But I still hav a huge ammount of other work to do on the plot so although we get a second tunnel next spring or earlier, they wont be joined into one for at least a year after that. So I figure on getting 3 and 2 years out of the covers before I buy a bigger cover to go over both frames.

Steve...

 

we have one similar to this, had it a couple of years, in the snow and strong winds in the winter the seams started to come apart, after struggling with gaffer tape over and over we eventually came up with the idea of tie wrapping at intervals through th squares in the cover thich seems to have worked a treat.