Outdoor UK guerilla: Rain cover

Right - i'm scared that i'm going to lose all the hard work i've done so far to the shitty British weather.

Last night was the first time I found mold. With lots more rain to come, I don't feel I stand a chance unless I act NOW.

You can see from this picture, i'm not trying to cover a large space.



Although they have filled up the space now, they're all contained within the same perimeter fence you see above.

I've got ideas but don't know what's best as have never grown before. What do you guys suggest?

Have any of you had to take similar precautions? What worked best for you?

Cheers all!

Thanks guys. I'm overwhelmed with your responses to my plea for help. lol

Last night, I went ahead and made a shelter for them anyway.

I have no pictures of the new setup. It was dark, pissing with rain and very muddy - no time for photo taking. When I do take photos, I'll upload them for you guys to see.

I'll briefly describe the design and what I did.

- Re-arranged the plot above so it was 3ft by 8ft rectangle. Fenced off with green plastic mesh, using bamboo as supports, pushed into the ground as far as they would go (roughly 1ft)

- Bought this grow tunnel

- Attached the plastic arches to the top of the fence with 50cm long 3.5mm thick pieces of wire. The wire is internal, sticking out from the bamboo and into the arches, which are also hollow.

- At this point I had a frame, with a fence on the lower half and arches across the top.

- I then used the PE film to stretch across the frame and anchor at both ends.

- Finally, anchored the rest of the frame with string, like guy-ropes on tents.


Design benefits;

+ The PE film can be rolled over to one side, when it's dry, without untying or dismantling anything.
+ When the film is over the top, there is still 3 ft of fence below, which will hopefully maintain enough airflow.


It may be hard to picture what I've done, using only the description above. I'll aim to get a decent camera over there in the next couple of days.

Yeah, the rain is a bit much right now isn't it.

Where did you find the mold? It looks like the buds haven't developed yet, which is what would normally be affected. The roots rotting would be my concern considering it really hasn't stopped raining for over a week.

When you're doing the plastic cover, just make sure there's nowhere that the water can pool, which can cause it to collapse heavily onto those fragile plants.

Otherwise, just good luck. Summer ended early - not sure how it'll affect outdoor crops.

It was dark, pissing with rain and very muddy - no time for photo taking.

Reped for that one, know how it is. good luck against the mold

b8man said:

Yeah, the rain is a bit much right now isn't it.

Where did you find the mold? It looks like the buds haven't developed yet, which is what would normally be affected. The roots rotting would be my concern considering it really hasn't stopped raining for over a week.

When you're doing the plastic cover, just make sure there's nowhere that the water can pool, which can cause it to collapse heavily onto those fragile plants.

Otherwise, just good luck. Summer ended early - not sure how it'll affect outdoor crops.

Click to expand...

Those pictures are a month old. They've all got reasonable size buds now, but they could all do with another month outside.

Thanks for the tips. I'll get some pictures up asap

Hey panoramical, I'm in the same boat except mine is in a plastic green house. As you said I can't quite picture what you have done. But I gues what your doing in keeping the rain off while keeping good air flow around all sides.

My green house has kept the rain off but it still builds up masses of condensation. Harvest seems to be about the end of October begining of November. As the autmn has swept in quite quickly this year I'm not sure how far they will go. The temp where I am is around 15c which is just about the minimum for growth.

I'll go snap a picture

Good luck with the rest of the season

stj2006 - nice to hear i'm not the only one suffering. i was going to get a green house like yours, but i would have need to and overall, i think the design i ended up using gives my plants the best possible chance

I borrowed a camera and headed down to the site. Took two pictures, battery dead. Extremely frustrating.

Here is one of the pictures, the other is in my album.



We've got 60mm of rain forecast over the following week. That should put it to the test.

that works you need to keep the plats dry at all costs. When the water does not dry out and sits on the plants this will cause bud rot/mold. It looks like u covered them great job u should be able to make it to harvest. If you can add any air flow will also help allot as well

Hammerhead said:

that works you need to keep the plats dry at all costs. When the water does not dry out and sits on the plants this will cause bud rot/mold. It looks like u covered them great job u should be able to make it to harvest. If you can add any air flow will also help allot as well

Click to expand...

Keeping them dry is the idea! The air flow isn't something I can add to, since I've got no power out there. I've let it as open as I could to encourage as much natural ventilation as possible.

I'll be checking them almost daily now. Shaking off any rain that does get to them and putting the cover on or off, depending on the weather forecast for the following day.

Thank you for your encouraging comments. I can't even consider losing the lot to mould.

What a shit week to come!!! 90-100% cloud cover, 90-100% humidity.

Found a couple of handfuls of mouldy bud. Added to the QWISO pile. 99.9% ISO arrive today.