Making light work of growing

Polythene Film History

To understand what 21st Century Polythene technology means to the Horticultural industry, it's worth looking back in time to the late 60's, early 70´s. Polytunnels were then little more than walk in cloches (or crawl in to be more precise), restricted in height, width, and length by the Polythene extruder's ability to produce big enough films. Consequently if you were lucky enough to fit a sheet without it splitting you could look forward to a growing environment that fell well short of ideal. The good news was that the cover only lasted two years !! by which time you could have made a down payment on a glass house.

Little wonder things changed, Polythene got wider, Polytunnels got bigger and Multispans were born. Some Polythene manufacturers included surface coatings to reduce condensation. Thermal Protection Tape and better quality mix and extrusion gave a much longer life span. So there it was, the late 1980's and Polytunnels became the professionals choice with a basic standard of Polythene cover which is still available today, some good and some not so good.

With so much professional commitment to the use of Polytunnels by growers worldwide, it was inevitable that as technology became available it would be used to benefit the tunnel grower