greenhouse or poly tunnel?

[altia13]

This is my first garden to plant and I am wanting to grow tomatoes and peppers and I am wondering what is the best for growing them in. I have found a nice green house and poly tunnel on amazon so not to sure what to get. At this moment in time I am leaning towards the poly tunnel as it is about 1/3 of the price of a greenhouse. But I want a second thoughts or more.

Can anyone help?

thanks

Christine

altia13

[diggernotdreamer]

Have you got a link or something to the stuff on amazon, difficult to assess what they are like. If this is to be a permanent fixture, i.e. not a rented house, but somewhere you plan on living for a good many years, something more durable would be an idea

[Odsox]

I have both and wouldn't be without either, but they do have totally different characteristics.

The best way I can describe them is a polytunnel is an area of your garden protected from the wind and excessive rain, where a greenhouse is an area that puts a piece of your garden many miles south of where it actually is.
A tunnel is cooler and a lot more humid than a greenhouse and although you can grow just about anything in either, some plants most definitely prefer one over the other. The tomatoes and peppers you want to grow would be better in a greenhouse, tomatoes especially as there is a lot less chance of potato blight than in a more humid tunnel.
But a tunnel is a better choice for things that you would normally grow outside, but in a tunnel would grow bigger, better and have less pest and disease problems. Things like lettuce, early peas, beans, salad carrots, sweetcorn, to name a few, all grow far better in a tunnel than outside, but would not like a greenhouse.
Where things like tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, melons and cucumbers would certainly grow in a tunnel but would much prefer a greenhouse.

In an ideal world I would recommend both, but if you can only have one, then (even though I'm a greenhouse man) I would probably go for the biggest tunnel I could afford.

[oldjerry]

Totally agree. Start with a 30'tunnel and grow everything in it(not maincrop spuds).You can start your tender stuff on the windowsill.Then maybe progress to a propagation thingy on a table in the corner of the tunnel.

[diggernotdreamer]

Good advice, my advice would be don't waste money on budget greenhouses or polytunnels, they don't last any time at all, get something substantial, look at Ferryman or First Tunnels, they have some good ones, have a 10ft x 35ft from Ferryman, cost me 500 quid, still going 12 years on

[altia13]

thanks for all the comments and I will have a look at the more expensive poly tunnels as I will be staying in my home for some time.

Christine

[Odsox]

Just to reinforce my comments, I took some temperature readings this morning. Yesterday was sunny in the morning but mainly cloudy in the afternoon and the night was cold (still is)
5" down (12cm) the soil temperature in the garden was 1.9c, in my 30' tunnel it was 5c and in my big greenhouse it was 7.5c.
Still not warm enough for my tomatoes, but I do have peas in bloom in the tunnel.