Bobberman
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Best colors of plastic mulch to choose for different plants

I like planting some crops under colored plastic mulch! I always use some black plastic for zuc and vine crops! Peppers seem to do very well with white plastic since it reflects the light to the bottom of the leaves! Clear plastic I will use for a week over my early lettuce crops then I remove it after the seeds start! I also punch alot of holes into the clear over the lettuce so it does not get too hot for the lettuce seedsClear also works great for me in a new carrot bed and seems to get more seeds coming up! Here is a link that really gets into colors of plastic that work best for certain crops. Read a good bit before you get to the colors used like for cukes ect! It seems strange that a red may work better for something and a green for something else! I am sold on plasic mulch! They use clear alot in Pa. for early sweet corn crops! Always remember roll out the plastic sheet like a 25 by 10 and test how the plastic is folder. If you cut a v cut in the plastic it will form a double v and if you do it right you will have very nice even cut holes all alog the 25 foot length and it only takes 5 minutes. Never make the holes after you lay the plastic down or you will be tramping all over it and have fewer straight lined holes! you can even make like a 6 inch v and a 2 inch v or make a bunch on one inch v's for extra water inlets! make small v's n each side of your main hole for better water absorbtion! Something to try is buy the big leaf or drum black bags and cut them open and you will have nice blocks of plastic for your garden. One bag will make like a 3 by 6 area and sometimes you can get 40 bag for $10! FUN FUN FUN!!!
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https://growingtaste.com/mulches.shtml

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gixxerific
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I wouldn't worry about color IF there is any difference it is slight. I would more worry about the actual material.

I would not use plastic myself. I have always been the one to use grass, lot and lots of grass. It breaks down fast and does a good job of, well, mulching. It is also a good source of nitrogen. Other than grass I would stick to lots of organic material that way it breaks down and actually adds to soil which plastic will not. I also use leaves and whatever vegetation I have growing in my garden. The more you can put in the better your output should be. Keep it varied and keep it thick with time your garden will be the envy of the neighborhood.

That is just how I do it. :D

DeborahL
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I get tons of tomatoes even though they're in pots. Or sometimes planted right in the 2 cubic feet bag of potting soil.
I believe it's because the pots/bags are on the beige/white decorative pebbles that I have instead of a backyard lawn. The plants are getting not only the sun but the reflected light from below.

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rainbowgardener
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Yeah, I'm with gixx. Plastic cuts down air and water circulation to your soil. Organic mulches don't do that and do break down to feed your soil.

Leaves, wood chips, grass clippings, pulled weeds, hay/straw .....

Lift up your plastic mulch and you will likely find compacted, dead soil with no earthworms (and not much microbial life if you looked with a microscope).

Lift up my organic mulch and you will find loose moist soil, teeming with life.

pondlady
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I used the red for Tomatoes and peppers. I used green last summer for the summer squash and cucks it was fantastic!! I could not believe how the squash produced. Will put it down this year as well. The red was great for the tomatoes as well BIG yield from them, and I did not spend all my time WEEDING!!!!!! FANTASTIC!

garden5
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You know, I at fist though colors didn't have any effect on plants. However, I've come to believe that it does affect them, to one degree or another, but I'd probably never try using it.

I just think that I'd rather have an organic mulch that will break down and improve my soil over the long-term rather than a short-term boost from some plastic.

However, to each his own and what works for me may not work for someone else.

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rainbowgardener
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pondlady wrote:I used the red for Tomatoes and peppers. I used green last summer for the summer squash and cucks it was fantastic!! I could not believe how the squash produced. Will put it down this year as well. The red was great for the tomatoes as well BIG yield from them, and I did not spend all my time WEEDING!!!!!! FANTASTIC!
you won't spend time weeding if you use organic mulch either...

DoubleDogFarm
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you won't spend time weeding if you use organic mulch either...
and think about less tilling, I am. :)

Eric

Bobberman
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I would try both plastic mulch and organic side by sie and see what happens. I guess too it depends on what you have access too! I make alot of my own mulch. You can put the plastic in small areas like maybe even a row of plastic 50 feet ong by only 2 feet wide and still get the benifit of mulch and plastic together. Some people use a clear plasic and put alot of small holes in it then as the summers moves on they cover the plastic with all types of grass and leaves so weeds do not grow underneath! A clear plastic allows weeds or a cover crop to grow underneath then when the mulch is placed on top of the plastic the weeds growing underneath die and add to the soil mulch! Using a landscape black porus mulch also works since I will not allow weeds to come through the mesh but allowes water to flow through so it can be musched and adds more heat to the suface of the soil! If it works do it! Different climates have diffeent solutions as dodifferent plants and soils!
That is whats fun about gardening since there is not set way and results speak for themselves!Also the big thing is TIME!!!



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