I am growing in a polytunnel. I am running 2 large household fans and keep the doors open and it's still too hot. MY tomato plants look half dead on the tops.

Any suggestions would be welcomed.

sum1 must have an idea?????

take the poly off the tunnel?

edit-for the time being?

I would need to cut it off. Thinking if putting some vents in the sides.

Yea dont really know but I reckon you need to get more cool air in.... dont know about puting vents in the side of a pollytunnel Just does'nt sound good, this hot weather prob wont last much longer though

shitshitshit sounds like an emergency!
you could post a topic in the Problem Solver category under Problem Solver category: under general growing questions.. Or maybe 'sick plants' for a quicker response as it seems more active!

Wish i could help more! good luck! hope your pakistani's are allright!!

actually the canna plants love it! Its everything else in there that hates it.

Put the oscillating fans together pointing in opposide directions at the center then get an air conditioner and put it on the coldest setting and aim it at them???

Just guessing

Is it possible to put he vents you're considering on the roof of the polytunnel to allow the hot air to escape up the way?




Rainman

Can you make it so that the bottom of the sides can be rolled up and then tied back down onto the metal hoops when it's cooler. I've seen that on commercial polytunnels.

The problem with this tunnel is its a lash up. DIY from scaffold tubes and water pipe but I think the problems sorted. I wasnt opening 1 of the doors fully for stealth reasons but now I have put some fine netting across the door which provides stealth and have positioned the fans just inside the doors pointing inwards in order to draw the cool air in.

Its boiling at the mo but I have gone in there and the heat is bearable plus the tomato plants aren't all shriveled up now.

Cheers for your input guys.

If you have a reasonable mains water supply available, rig up an overhead misting/fogging system on a timer to drop the temps and add some humidity(plants can cope with higher temps with higher RH).
Adding the roll up sides is definitely a good plan if you can do it.
Check out northern polytunnels website and take a look at their cantilever roof vent design..its pretty easy to homebrew. If its a permanently sited tunnel there are other things you can do but it involves more work

Hi Mr wiggles sorry to hear about your dilema.

I used to work in a tree nursery that had 14 very large pollytunels. My job was to look after tunnels 7,8,9 and 10. The biggest prob was always controling temps. we never used fans instead all the tunnels were biult on a slight slope allowing the air to pass through from bottom to top, but the most important part was the green netting that was on them.

The green netting was atatched at the top rolled up on a length of scafolding tubes (you could use lengths of bamboo instead) and rolled down on realy hot days to give the plants a little bit shade. (Green netting only blocks out the green end of the spectrum allowing th rest to pass through to the plants). This meens that you can water your tomatoes or other plants even during the hottest days without worry of scorching.

If you get some then i advise you to go to a builders yard and ask for green scafolding netting as it is the same as the stuff you would get from a garden centre but they charge more than double the price in some places.

Hope this is of help to you.

Cheers Tico.

not sure if they'd work the same in a poly tunnel as there supposed to in a greenhouse but how about a heat sink...