What size polytunnel would I need to feed a family of 6?

Hi Everyone new member here, :happydance:
as I haven't got a polytunnel yet, I would like to know what size polytunnel should I buy, to grow veg, fruit etc... to feed my family of 6 ?

Also I would like to grow bedding plants as well.


Thanks in advance for any advice

 

Hi Chi Chi and welcome to Gardeners corner!

Your question is very, very difficult to answer, but it can be answered...backwards!

For many years people have grown their own food without greenhouses or Polytunnels, the question you should be asking is how much space do you need to grow enough food for a family of six. Then someone will ask what would you like to grow in the space and how much time can you give to it, ie how much time can you spend looking after your cultivation space?

Can you see how this is now going in reverse, rather than answering your question?

Another good example is I like cabbages and potatoes (and grow both) but I will get more food from the same size space when growing potatoes than I would from cabbage, but if I planned well and had plants ready to go in I could probably get two crops of cabbage to one crop of potatoes, and therefore have more cabbage.

So to go fully backwards, why dont you tell us how much space you have, what food you would like to grow in it and how much time you can spend looking after it all?

Steve...

 

Thanks, I see exactly what you mean. I will find my tape measure and get back to you with measurements and what im hoping to plant

 

Another thing to think about is what sort of tunnel gardener you are: are you looking to use it like a conventional greenhouse (hot weather crops in summer, very little in winter) or provide some food all year round?

 

My greenhouse is 30' x 10'. Its big relatively speaking, but I have glass simply because it came up for £400 on eBay when I was looking for a poly tunnel.

On the right I have a row of 18 x tomatoes next to the path, then a row of peppers and aubergines, then a row of melons (against the glass).

On the other side I grow Sweetcorn in succession (for an early crop), inter-planted with more peppers and aubergines and a few chilli plants for after the Sweetcorn is harvested.

I have 4 Cucumber plants on the "end-wall"

In the winter I grow Chard (left side only), that gives us a late Winter / early Spring crop.

I have grown dwarf French beans and lettuce for an early crop, and Lambs Lettuce for over winter, but I haven;t really found that I get enough crop to make that worthwhile. I have also tried dwarf French beans for a late Autumn crop - but we eat in season, and we are ALL DONE !! with "beans" by October / November

My veg patch feed the family (4) for most of the year, and in Summer we produce for lunch BBQ's every weekend for a dozen or more friends.

My veg patch is is 675 sq.M (that's 25 M x 25M) – which includes the greenhouses and the areas used for Nursery beds and Cut flowers. It is arranged into raised beds about 50' long and 4' wide. I have :

4 beds for main vegtable crop rotation (Brassicas, Beans, Onions, Roots)
1 bed for squash / courgettes
4 beds for separate rotation of sweetcorn, spuds and overspill verg shared with:
2 beds for Sweetpeas / Gladioli
1 bed strawberries
1 bed Asparagus
2 beds for Raspberries
2 beds for other soft fruit (Blackberry, currants, etc)
2 beds for nursery plants

and 1 bed for greenhouses.

On ends of 4 beds I have more squash (that grow across the lawn)
On other end of those 4 beds I have Comfrey, and then Globe artichokes

On ends of the main veg. crop rotation I have Rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes and Globe artichokes

I have space, so I'm pretty lax about cramming things in, but you could use a methodology like Square Foot Gardening, if you have less space, to get far higher productivity than I do.

Here's a possibly useful article "How Much Veg to Plant:

http://organicgarden.org.uk/gardening/vegetables/how-much-veg-to-plant/

 

Kristen that link is great for us beginers have you anymore please
my pollytunnel is 25Ft X 14Ft home made with old scaffold poles hammered into the ground then 75mm gas mains pipe put over them then the polly stuff with raised beds so I can kneel down to do planting/weeding as I have a back problem

 

What sort of "any more" ? (sorry, not sure I have understood what you are looking for)

 

Welcome Chi Chi!

How about this..

 

I wish I had that it would feed a small village:WINK1:

 

What I should have wrote is other sites for what to plant & when. I bought a book on all year pollytunnel planting & it was American about as much use as a chocolate fire guard ?

 

Ah, OK. Sorry, that's the only once I've got in my favourites.

Dunno if Google will do "sites like that one" perhaps? That might turn up some others.

There is some good info on Vegetables at Allotment Growing: Vegetable, Fruit and Herb Gardening on an Allotment if you are specifically after info on Veg.

 

Thanks Kristen thats just what I needed it looks great Thank you again Mick

 

Not as friendly as GC

 

Yes, I have found that too, but as a specialist forum they are very knowledgeable on Veg.

But folk here are pretty knowledgeable on Veg too, and there are folk here who know about other aspects of gardening too

Ask about growing Flowers on a Vegetable forum and they'll laugh you out of town!