Topic: Plastic Glasshouse

[killerflies]

Its probably not the correct name, but I have bought a tidy 2.5ft by 5ft high (4 shelves) plastic bag glasshouse and was wondering if anyone had any experience with them.

Im looking for any tips on how to get the most from them, e.g. leave unzipped for half the day or, if you had devised any mcguiver-ish watering solutions for it.

It should start off alot of my veggies and plants early this year and just want to make the most of it.

Beir bua!

[Uncle Joshua]

I have had a few of them, I kept mine closed unless it was very hot.

One thing you may want to do is put a large stone on the bottom shelf as they tend to blow away.

[Lauren S]

Killerflies hello and welcome to A4A.
I think alot of people on A4A have used them with great success.
A sheltered corner would be best, but they work very well for starting off your seeds etc. My neighbour has several of them and she gets good results.
Good luck and keep us posted of your results.
Lauren  :)

[killerflies]

I certainly will lauren, and thanks to Mick too. In fact, I just aquired a load of blocks so, some of them have been earmarked for use as such.

Any more ideas anyone?

[norfolklass]

mine's south facing against a wall so I open mine during the day (learned from the bitter experience of leaving it zipped up on a loverly sunny spring day and completely frying several seed trays of seedlings ::))

I also I tend to use seed trays with lids when I leave things out overnight because the snails can scale the plastic right up to the top shelf and hide out in the nooks and crannies underneath the plastic rails.

[sunloving]

Hi
I love these mini greenhouses, you can get the tall jackson and spear ones from woolies at the moment for £15. they are brill for starting off your hardies now ( ive got hollyhocks and onions in mine, and they are grreat for forcing pots of bulbs into early flower and for tomatoes and aubergines and chillies in the summer.

My tip after bitter experience is to lash them to somthing solid such as a drainpipe. I live at the top of a hill and the winds really rock these things unless you tie them. When i put bricks on the bottom shelf the next morning i just get the one shelf left on the ground and the rest of the mini greenhouse blown off somethwhere else! you can just tuck the flap around your rope so so dont need to untie it every time.
good luck
x sunloving

[Rob08]

I have found a large rock on the bottom shelf works ok.  That or tying it securely to a wall.  Only problem I have not yet resolved (and it is an annually recurring one) is the cat crawling into the mini greenhouse at night and managing to knock out all the shelves and destroying my seedlings.

No matter what I do, each year he manages to do this.  I lost pretty much all of my first lot of tomatoes and herbs this spring because of him...

[killerflies]

Just had the thinking cap on.

Instead of/additional to the blocks at the bottom, you could have a large basin of water. This way you have a weight at the bottom of the thing and any evaporation could, in a inefficient way, water your plants.

[cornykev]

With a bit of luck Killer you might get some drownd nosey snails, my two biggest problems were the wind and snails, the wind twisted and ruined mine but I have another. So its against the shed and weighed down with paving and pots in the corners.  ;D ;D ;D

[woppa30]

I love mine, don't have space for a greenhouse at home or time (every day visit) at the loittie so its great for starting things of.
I use a bag of builders sadn for balast on the bottom shelf, I too have lost stuff due to it blowing over.
They can get very warm and I have also learnt from bitter experience that you can fry young seedlings, even in Feb / march if you don't open the thing up.
My cat likes to sit on the top, luckily he's not that heavy, must enjoy the warmth :-)
Will check woolies tonight to see if I can pick up a second one.
Woppa

[Cuke]

I got a walk-in one of them last year (my first veggie growing year) and, looking back, doubt I'd have done anywhere near as well without it. I tended to propigate things in the house then move them to the greenhouse when they seemed big enough. I also used it to start seeds off once I got the hang of what I was doing a bit later on in the season.

I tended to leave the door open all day (and night in the warmer weather) otherwise the seedlings wilted in the heat and there was a also always a huge build up of condensation (mine has no vents for airflow for some reason) which I worried may cause things to get a bit mouldy.

I found it was the ideal place to harden off plants before putting them in the ground, pretty much everything I grew spent some time in their before being planted out.

[killerflies]

Just broke it out over the weekend and put in some Pak Choi seedlings I had on the window sill. Fingers crossed.

As for tying it down. I put in a good sized bucket of water as well as a few blocks.

The corner is windy but as it will only be open to the wind on front and to one of the sides, I reckon it'll survive.

Ill let ye know how it progresses.................or not!

[Kea]

I have mine attached to the house wall and weighed down with a bag of compost but I lose the bottom shelf this way so I'm going to try wiring a brick to each corner this growing season. Actually I've had it up all winter with chillies ripening in it. The plants died but the chillies are fine.....except I had forgot them until I noticed them on Saturday.

[Kea]

In Focus today I noticed 4 tier ones selling for £13-99.