You may be asking, what size of polytunnel should I buy?
The entire world was affected by COVID-19; I guess you’re also one of them. And no one is exempted from this pandemic. And where can you get your food when it happens?
Of course, you can get it from local UK supermarkets. No one even expected that there would be food shortages, much worse, and contamination.
It’s a good thing if you have a polytunnel at home in the United Kingdom; you can pick the fruits or veggies in your backyard.
Basics When Choosing A Polytunnel
So, what size of polytunnel should I buy?
The best advice is to go back to the basics. Start growing your food. It is not complicated. Not only that, but it is also much chipper and fresher than whatever you can get food from any supermarket.
Firstly, it is to go online and buy a reliable polytunnel. There you can grow fresh produce.
Here are just some that you can have:
(strawberry, blubbery, blackberry, gooseberry, raspberry, string beans, cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, beef tomatoes, cabbage, lettuces, zucchini, cucumbers, parsley cilantro, green onions, carrots, onions, leek, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupes, bell pepper, Italian pepper, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.)
Before you shop for a polytunnel, you should understand what kind of polytunnel you should look for and what to expect from this polytunnel to work most effectively for you and your family.
Why To Even Consider A Polytunnel
You can grow food under the open air; however, you will be very discouraged in today’s climate and weather fluctuations in 95% of instances.
What the polytunnel will give you is the surety of getting your product, and not only; we will talk about it a bit later.
Your polytunnel must be ready to withstand wind in the UK of at least 20 miles an hour, and therefore it must be anchored to the ground. It does not have to be bolted or cemented to the ground. There are bolt anchors that you can install within 5 min by yourself. Depending on the size of the polytunnel, you will need a least four of those anchors.
The second item you will need to look for is at the polytunnel is what is it covered with.
Types Of Covers
There are polytunnels covered with glass, polycarbonate, polypropylene, and polyethene foil.
Glass polytunnels are too expensive and are not needed, especially for hobby growing.
Polycarbonate is also very expensive and not efficient since polycarbonate passes not a lot of sunlight.
There are polytunnels made out of polypropylene. Most of them are in green colour. Read about the effect of polypropylene on human organisms in the articles published by Cornell and Pen state universities.
In-plane language, polypropylene used in growing produce and used in any food processing is very dangerous to your health, with the possible cancer consequences.
Most Efficient Cover For Any Polytunnel
To grow the produce in general, one needs four conditions: Sun radiation, higher than ABOVE 0C or 33 F outside temperature, water, and air.
So now we established that we are looking for a structure covered with polyethene foil, anchored to the ground with the steel anchors, mostly pipes. The structure can be made out of wood or tubes (hollow steel); however, the best one is made out of tubes.
It is a pre-galvanized tubing of about 1″, 25mm in diameter. If you buy it on the Internet, look for the tubes’ diameter specification, which is crucial.
What yourpolytunnelalso has to have is plastic or metal clips to attach the foil to a frame and a special zip spring to hold the foil and the mash for letting the air in.
Yourpolytunnelshould have at least one door if it is small, preferably two if it is medium or more substantial. It also preferably has to have openings on the sides; those polytunnels are cold multi-seasonal polytunnels. You can grow in there to produce in them several times during the season.
Polytunnel doesn’t need to be pretty; however, it does need to be effective.
Size Of Polytunnel To Buy
Beautiful polytunnels at the end of the day are suitable for keeping the flowers in and storing the bikes.
Now let us talk, how big a polytunnel does your family need.
According to the British academy of science, the human body needs to consume about seven portions of vegetables and fruits per day. These seven portions represent about 3.5 Lbs or 1.4kg.
On average, after you will learn how to do this right, your polytunnel will get you about 3.7 Lbs of produce from sq foot per year.
So for one member of your family, you will need 346 sq foot of polytunnel space.
The cost of growing any of the product should not cost you any more then £0.1 per Lbs if you did this by yourself every day, spending only about one hour a day.
For example:
You have a family of 4, so you will need to grow 5108Lbs of produce within the season divide this number by 3.7, so you will need about 1380 sq foot of polytunnel floor or about 155 sq meters of polytunnels.
You can have one structure or four of them; it is up to you to select.
We believe the quality structure should not cost you any more than £5.5 per sq. foot. This building will be amortised with at the very least 15 years; all you need to change is just the foil, which is readily available and inexpensive.
So the polytunnel will cost you about .36 cents per year per foot, but if you add seeds and change of foil, you should not pass the estimated price of 0.1 cents per Lbs of produce per year.
Now you most definitely know were this produce came from; you grow it yourself. You can eat it fresh, or can and consecrate it, or dry it or freeze it. You will still satisfy the requirements of the British Academy of Science.
It’s A Wrap!
Now you are fully protected from COVID-19 or any other viruses. You will be healthy, mentally, and physically fit.
If you answered this question, “what size of polytunnel should I buy?” you can get the best choice. And by that, you can plant many crops you want, and you’re prepared for whatever situation there is.