What do you recommend as a floor for my new greenhouse?
Jennie Russell, by email
Stefan says: The floor must allow water to drain away and be capable of being cleaned and disinfected.
Older greenhouses commonly had brick floors but soil and debris can be trapped in gaps between the bricks or slabs. They can also be very slippery when they are wet.
So we come to non-solid floors and the most obvious is bare earth. This would seem to make sense where tomatoes or other plants are being grown directly in soil beds, perhaps with a few slabs as a path down the centre. But I’m not enthusiastic about growing plants directly in greenhouse soil because of the likelihood of diseases building up after a few years. My ideal is a gravel floor with a slab path down the centre and deeper, plastic-lined gravel beds at the sides on which ring culture pots may be stood.