22nd November

We have some amazing mushrooms growing wild around the farm right now, I haven’t got a clue what they are, so we have no intentions on trying them, but they do look fantastic.

We have considered growing mushrooms in the past, the compost from them is supposed to be amazingly good for the soil, but we do buy some in each week, but not enough that would justify putting up a mushroom tunnel.

But we are contemplating replacing three of our very old tunnels this year.

We have three 50 metre by six metre tunnels that are over thirty years old.

And two the same size that will be around twenty years old.

Plus two cosy tunnels that are ninety metre by seven meter that will be around ten years old.

The three that are really old, we have to re sheet them every couple of years.

The reason being the hoops are a wee bit bent, with taking years of getting battered with winds.

So when we sheet them some of the polythene doesn’t go tight against some of the hoops, this isn’t the best, and the polythene can flap about a wee bit.

Also these tunnels start bending in to form a hoop at only three feet from the ground, this makes them really hard to work in with the tractor, and when it is super warm, the plants nearest the polythene can wilt.

New tunnels have vented sides, ideal for summer months, and for some crops that like more ventilation this is much better, plus the sides come up straight and only start to bend over making a hoop at around six feet, making it far easier to work in.

So we have been looking and taking down the old ones, and possibly putting them up with thicker green polythene, and using them for storage.

So I have been looking at replacing them, with two three bay multi span tunnels.

A three bay multi span tunnel is basically three tunnels joined together, making it one huge 50 meter by 21 metre tunnel, with vented sides.

They are joined in the middle by a gutter system, where we can collect the water and use it for watering, and with vented sides, we will be able to grow more variety of crops, plus with the sides coming straight up we will get right to the edge of the tunnel sides with the tractor, this will help us get an extra bed for planting in.

Hopefully everything adds up, and if we do go for two multi spans, it will give us lots of extra room for growing more tunnel crops.