Kitchen Garden Forum

At what sort of night time temperature would folk recommend the doors to g/house and p/tunnel be left open?

im leaving the top half of the polytunnel door open at night now ,more in case i go to work forgetting to open them than anything else. I feel a cooked tunnel by day will do more harm than a chilly one by night

I leave the top lights and the door slightly ajar on our greenhouse overnight at the moment (ca 12 degrees overnight). It will still be warmer in there than outside overnight because all the pots, soil and gravel path have soaked up the daytime warmth and will be releasing it overnight.

How strange I have just come back from my plot and was going to ask the very same question. Last year because it was so cold we left our doors shut all the time to stop the draughts and we got blight, so this year I have not shut the doors at all and as with today it feels very cold in there. The wind is whistling through. I have got four tomatoe plants, two courgette plants and three aubergines but I dont think the aubergines went in soon enough. So I am not expecting much from them. Though the leaves are something to behold with large spikes on the upper part of the leaf.

Does anyone think I should close it up at night, bearing in mind that on Wednesdays and Thursday mornings I cant always go to open it in the morning. There is plastic on the bottom of the door and mesh on the upper part of the door.

On our allotment there is a supposed "expert" tomatoe man who has never openened the door to his polytunnel. I dont know whether to follow his way or not.

Catherine, I assume we are getting about the same night time temperatures as you at the moment (10 or 11 degrees) and I close the manual greenhouse top flap (the second one is automatic) and the door every evening to just being ajar, to keep the air moving. We also have two bottom flaps and they stay open all summer, night and day. Our tomatoes are doing ok with the first tomatoes forming but the peppers are very slow. The remaining plants are pot plants like fuchsias etc and several basils.