Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi all,
I live in the Falkland Islands and our weather is getting more and more unpredictable and extreme - we had snow in December this year which is supposed to be mid-summer down here! I have been growing basic veggies for he last 5 years as it's got to the point where imported veggies cost dearly (3 carrots = £1.00 and 1 banaana = £1.50!!!!). I have therefore decided that it's time to buy some solartunnels so that my veggies have a more stable environment to grow in, but I haven't been able to find a supplier that is affordable to me and I can't just nip to the garden centres to check out options or prices as we don't have any garden centres (or many shops for that matter!). Can any of you northern-hemisphere-shop-going-peebs help me, pretty please??? I look forward to hearing from you. Dawn

Hello and welcome, Dawnie! Wow, you are a fair distance from us mostly UK dwellers!

I recommend looking at the website
www.northernpolytunnels.co.uk
which is a large firm producing commercial and domestic polytunnels and all their fittings. Whether they ship them overseas and at what cost, I don't know, but you could always enquire.

Just thought I would mentions that one of our sons spent a year in the Falklands in the RAF in the early 1990s and absolutely loved it, particularly the wildlife.

Hi Dawnie,
Welcome to the forum.
Knowing the extremes of weather you have in the Falklands my advice is to try and get a tunnel with 3 ridges using 60mm galvanized tubing.
Three ridges, one at the top and two at 45 degrees either side of the top
gives you a very rigid structure which under your conditions will be ideal.
I live in an area of high winds and my tunnels are 3 ridged and braced.
My tunnels also have 4ft straight sides before the curve begins
which means that you get a good height above you when working and you are not always bumping into the polythene or clouting you head on a pole.
I do hope you attain you goal.
Sincerely,
JB.

I have recently seen adverts for one with a woven cover, the picture showed three people sat on the errected tunnel.

I know it is very windy there but I guess the shipping costs of a good quality galvanised tube structure would be prohibitive. I assume somebody imports blue water pipe in reasonable enough quantities that it would be more economical though not as strong, there are quite a few plans on the internet for building tunnels this way. You would probably still have to import your own cover but at least it would not be so heavy.
An alternative I guess is that you import from nearer; perhaps from Argentina that you should be part of anyway, we shouldn't have colonies in this day and age (lets get out of Gibraltar, Ireland, Scotland, Wales etc while we are at it and cut the FO to a third to balance the books!)

re blue water pipe. fill with dry sand and cork each end, this will make it more ridged.

Geoff. You left out Canvey Island.

Shallot Man wrote:Geoff. You left out Canvey Island.

An alternative I guess is that you import from nearer; perhaps from Argentina that you should be part of anyway, we shouldn't have colonies in this day and age (lets get out of Gibraltar, Ireland, Scotland, Wales etc while we are at it and cut the FO to a third to balance the books!)[/quote]

Blimey -he only asked about a polytunnel!!!

Hi Geoff,
So we should not have colonies but it would be OK for the Falklands to be an Argentinian Colony would it?
Suggest we stick to the Polytunnels in future.
JB.

Dear all,
Thank you all very much for your advice on purchasing and making tunnels. The current freight rate to FI from UK is approaching £300.00 per cubic metre so making one may well be much more affordable, so thank you for the blue plastic pipe idea! I' am soon moving from the Island's town to a farm that we have bought, so I shall be a much more active participant in the forum from the end of July, that is, of course, assuming you not all ars* up in your own gardens until late o'clock whilst I'm sleighing down the hills in the dark!

Dear Dawn,
Blue Polythene Tube is not treated against ultraviolet rays and will after a time become very brittle. I know this because I made a tunnel some time ago from it and when I tried to move it the main pipes actually fractured.
On the other hand Black Polythene Tube is treated against ultraviolet rays and should last a lot longer.
JB.

Point taken JB. Now then, on to different topics - is it essential to hoe potatoes up? Can anybody recommend a good hardy blight resistant seed that will give a good crop? Also, when is the best time to plant onion sets - somebody said I should do it on the coldest day of the year.

If you grow earlies, Dawnie, such as Pentland Javelin, kestrel, Colleen, Orla or other varieties, you should manage to harvest them before the blight gets them. For maincrop I have grown Sarpo Mira quite successfully. However, i have found that blight, while affecting the leaves of potatoes, need not actually affect the tubers, so I have managed to get good crops from all my maincrop varieties even in wet summers. Perhaps I've just been lucky, but I wonder whether the way I "earth up" by placing large amounts of newspaper instead of earth around the crops may also have something to do with it.

Hi Mike,
I very much doubt that Dawnie will have problems with Blight in the Falklands unless it is in the bought seed. For this reason my advice is to buy NON-Organic seed stock as the first generation and keep your own seed and grow as you wish in the following years.
I do not think that the Falklands have a very long growing season so probably Early and Second Early varieties would be best to start with.
Maris Bard is an Early Variety that if left will go on to provide some good quality large storable potatoes so you can have your new spuds and leave a proportion of the crop to mature. I am sure this would be the same for several varieties but I have experience with Maris Bard and know that what I have said actually works.
Dawnie, it would be of use to us here in UK to know approx your frost to frost period. (last spring frost to first autumn frost)
JB.