Polytunnels - cleaning, wood treatment, ventilation etc.

Hi all

It's a bit late to be getting to round sorting my polytunnel, but better late than never as they say I've not used it before as I moved into the house last year. And I'm totally new to ploytunnels.

1. Cleaning. I have some Agralan Citrox for cleaning but the instructions are sparse. Does anyone know how to use it? Should it be used like a normal soap and then rinsed off? Or sprayed on and left to do it's thing?

2. Should I use the Citrox for the outside of the PT as well?

3. I need to re-treat the timber sections... Can anyone recommend a suitable product to use? Seems the wood gets quite dry on the inside, so I need to bear that in mind along with the weatherproofing.

4. Might be a silly question, but do gaps matter? The doors are quite ill fitting, so there's reasonable sized gaps around them. Is that an issue? Is it a case of the more air tight the better?

Many thanks

 

I think it matters on a cold night, or when a cold wind is blowing from that direction. But that only matters if you have crops in there at the time when those sorts of wintry conditions prevail. In the Summer you'll have the doors wide open much of the time ...

 

Hello I've found it very useful to replace the plastic on one end with green shading mesh, during the summer. The mesh stops draughts, animals, insects etc, but allows plenty of ventilation. I'm working on some sort of 'roller blind' affair made of the same mesh to close off the open doorway. Plants in polytunnels hate excessive heat just as much as cold.

 

Sorry, I forgot to return to say thanks for your replies.

Regarding #1. I did got a response from the makers of Citrox and they said it should be sprayed and left on - not rinsed off. Just thought I'd mention that in case it is helpful to anyone else who's unsure how to use it.

Cheers