PolytunnelsRus

  Plain polythene left out in the sun will fail fast. Ordinary plastic sheeting can’t take much sun before it starts to fail. A few months is often enough. It goes brittle, cracks along the fold lines, and rips apart the first time the wind gets under it. Some polytunnel plastic UK suppliers sell lasts five years. Other plastic can fall apart in one summer. There’s a reason for that gap. It comes down to whether UV stabilisers went into the mix before the plastic left the factory. Choosing the right polytunnel plastic makes all the difference. Does polyethene resist UV on its own? No, not without help. Polyethene is the base material in almost all polytunnel plastic UK growers use. Without treatment, it has nothing to stop ultraviolet light attacking it. Sunlight tears the polymer chains apart at a molecular level. Photodegradation is the name for that process. Give it enough exposure and the sheet goes cloudy, then chalky, then it starts flaking off in your hand. That’s wh...

  A domestic tunnel and a commercial tunnel can look very similar. Step inside and the difference is obvious. A domestic tunnel is usually for garden crops, seedlings, a smallholding, or an allotment. Commercial polytunnels are working structures that take a lot of punishment. They are built for repeated access, heavier cropping, larger spans, stronger weather loads, and need to be durable to last. That does not make a commercial tunnel. It just means they are meant for different jobs. Frame strength and scale Domestic tunnels are normally smaller and lighter. You can often put one up with basic tools, grow tomatoes, salads, strawberries, and overwintering plants, then adjust things later without much drama. Commercial polytunnels have to cope with more. Longer runs, wider bays, crop support wires, irrigation, staging, stock use, and barrow or machinery access all put extra strain on the frame. Steel thickness matters. So does hoop spacing, bracing, anchoring, and door desi...