how to sterilise green house

what does everyone recommend to sterilise the green house and soil in my green house, i dont know if anyone will recall but i had blight this last summer and due to illness i still havent cleared or cleaned the green house ....

so
1) i need to remove dead plants and burn
2) i need to wash all pots and equipment in Jeyes
3) clean algae from windows and wash .... Jeyes ???


SO LASTLY
4) i have soil in the green house how do i sterilise this ?

oh and random thought can a steam cleaner be used on poly carbonate sheets ?


any advice would be welcome x

 

Mines all flags kaz so i just used jeyes for greenhouse but my plants pots are outside still im really lazy..clean them as i need them x

 

You can get those smoke thingies but I'm not sure how effective they are (never used them, and very inexperienced at greenhouse growing in general).

You know the ones, like a cone, you light the top, shut them in and leave them until they've finished.

 

I replace the "soil" in my greenhouse every year.

I use the compost heap - which is only half-rotted so to speak - and well rotted manure (about half-and-half). At the end of the year the stuff that comes out is lovely and nothing like as heavy to work as soil would be.

Crops won't like growing year-after-year in the greenhouse soil, so the soil will need replacing at some point, I just choose to do it annually as it finishes off my composting process

Blight won't survive in the soil (as far as I know), the only risk is potato tubers that have been overlooked and sprout next year. Pull them up the moment you see them sprout.

I use Jeyes to wash-down the glass etc.

 

i take off the top 6/8 inches and replace every year soil/compost is 2 foot deep

fresh compost for all pots
i am sure that i read blight will over winter in soil ? never had blight in green house before

 

This is the way my mum taught me.( a novice):
In the spring
Move out overwintering plants
Take all pots dibbers etc in to house and wash
Remove fleece etc.
Use jeyes and clean frame and glass and staging and potting tablestarting at top
Get soap and water and clean the outside
Put all the cleaned bits back in and get your potting compost and ur ready to go
She grows veg in those big potatoe bags as even sifting a bed for rouge potatoes would be a nightmare and she is such a wonderful clean freak in the garden she would want to replace soil every year to proyect her plants.

 

I have used the one in a tin , works too well , as when I put all the plants back in the next day ie fushia other bits and pieces it made all the leaves burnt or drop off, the cedar wood had really absorbed the sulphur its smelt awful for about 4 weeks .
At least I learnt a lesson not to re-stock and leave for a week at least but it did sort out the spider mite and white fly.

Past two years I have used a splash of bleach into a bucket of warm water and give all the glass a good scrub with a sponge really does get the algie off quickly .

Mine is paved and use huge pots so much easier than having border soil in a small greenhouse , but in the past I did use Jeyes Fluid to drench the soil are we still allowed to do this ?.

Spruce

 

I 've not actually bothered with any deep cleaning of the greenhouse for years, (some might say it shows), but if you move plants out and then back again you seem to me to be defeating the object, as most pests and diseases are on the growing plants and not the greenhouse itself.
If its a total clear out, plants and all, then it could well be worth it.

I see the point of removing any border soil, if you grow that way, and I must admit I was under the impression blight can stay dormant overwinter in the soil.
But my thoughts on blight are, if you have the ideal conditions you will get it anyway.
As far as I know it can be airbourne.

 

This year I are mainly- removing all glass from the roof, cleaning and storing. Jet washing all ally structure and replacing all cracked glass in the verticles, leaving the roof glass out hoping a couple of good frosts will zap a few bugs.

Glass in and a spray of Jeyes and a candle jobby.

Cheers, Tony.

 

cant presure wash as poly carb sheets so can i steam clean ?

 

Quite. My aim in pressure washing the greenhouse, and using Jeyes, is to get rid of the grime and the green algae-looking muck. There are trees to the North of my greenhouses, so maybe my glass is more manky than others?

I had a look on the RHS website. This is all I could find that seemed to be relevant:

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=217

"The pathogen overwinters in rotten potatoes left in the ground or by the sides of fields

The fungus can also produce resting spores (oospores) in the plant tissues that can contaminate the soil. Little is known about their survival and their potential as a source of the disease."

so I still think it is crucial to remove any potatoes that sprout the following year. A 4-year rotation will take care of any infection that does overwinter in the soil.

Also, wrt Airborne infection, this:

"the great majority of infections in gardens arise from wind-blown sporangia originating in other gardens, allotments and commercial crops. In the UK, outbreaks may occur from June onwards, usually earliest in the South West."

(This is late-onset blight, not early blight)

 

thanks Kirsten,
well that helps me alot actually as once i remove all dead plants (it was late blight) the green can be cleaned throughout and as i have been ill not plants where put into to over winter Terry has popped them in them garage for me ... so once i and up too it i shall get a riddle on the sort it out, thanks for the advice

 

just re read my last reply .... i dont make sense trying to type during an md attack .... i dont even recall posted this morning

 

Hugs kaz