Clear/White Plastic Planting

[lakngulf]

I am seriously considering using the clear/white plastic planting method for at least half of my garden. I have seen this with so many commercial growers that I thought they must know something. But I have some questions:

1. Anyone tried it?
2. Are the mounds necessary? I have never seen a row that was not terraced a bit.
3. What is the planting process? X slit and plant?
4. How about watering? I was considering a soaker hose, cause otherwise I am assuming the plastic holds water. This may be the reason for the mounded rows with commercial growers. They may have holes in the plastic between the rows.
5. Reasons: My main goal is weed control, but I assume there are other advantages as well
6. Longevity: Will I get more than one year out of plastic?

[lakngulf]

Well, I used the old school method to learn a bit on the subject: Google. Seems that the clear plastic will warm the soil but will not control weeds. Black is better for controlling weeds and improving production, but red is even better. I wonder if they are pulling my leg.

[Dillbert]

on a commercial scale it's frequently used for weed control - you can imagine the amount of mulch material needed for acres and acres . . .

there is usually a drip/soaker hose installed under the plastic. the mounds help concentrate the water. the design for irrigating is critical - bad guesses make for dry&fry spots.

mounding also makes for lay-down then cover the edges with soil from the rows an easier proposition.

I use clear to help warm patches for a jump start but I don't leave it on.

[lakngulf]

I am having second thoughts, but I am tired of pulling weeds

[nedwina]

Well, I used the old school method to learn a bit on the subject: Google. Seems that the clear plastic will warm the soil but will not control weeds. Black is better for controlling weeds and improving production, but red is even better. I wonder if they are pulling my leg.

I use this stuff called "Lumite" which is a woven black landscape fabric that nurserys and greenhouses use. Since it's woven, air & water pass through. You do need to sear the cut edges with a torch, (and use a torch to burn circles for hills) otherwise it'll unravel. Not cheap, but it will last multiple seasons with a bit of care.

The mounds/beds you see are laid by special tractor attachments that push the soil away & lay the plastic and then push the soil back over the edges to anchor the plastic. (And they drop an irrigation line too, as Dilbert says.) For the small scale user, instead of gathering a zillion bricks, buying those staples, or whatever to pin it down, dig an angled trench about 6 inches deep at a foot less than the width of the plastic. (So with a 5 foot roll make your bed 4 feet wide with 6 inches sloping away on either side.) Lay the plastic so the edges just hang down the side of the trench (Think slash \ not U. You'll nearly kill yourself pulling a U out later.) Then push the soil over to cover & anchor. Do the same at the beginning & end of the row too. Works really well.

Even though the Lumite is permeable, I've found that drip tape is needed, it gets really hot under there. So I lay it under the Lumite.

So that's the deal with Lumite. I used black plastic one year and then upgraded to Lumite the next. Black plastic is ok, but it doesn't breathe, or allow rain in, and it's not nearly as tough. Depending not how wet your soil is when you lay it, you may or may not need to irrigate under solid black plastic. But if it stays hot & dry for a long time, without irrigation the soil just cooks under it.

[nedwina]

I am having second thoughts, but I am tired of pulling weeds

Do you use a hoe? Nothing like a super sharp hoe to slice their little heads off. Google "collinear hoe". Great design.

[Dillbert]

>>I am having second thoughts, but I am tired of pulling weeds

there is this theory of tilling / hoeing / cultivating between rows to "weed"

there is also a theory of covering everything with mulch to prevent the weeds from sprouting. end of season you dig/till in the mulch and that improves the soil.

either approach involves work. one doesn't have much long term benefit, the other has a lot of long term benefit.

I mulch, using primarily grass clipping and chopped leaves. in my roughly 1000 sq ft garden I'd estimate I spend perhaps 40-50 minutes _per season_ on "weeding" - the odd weed pokes through now and then - stands out like a sore thumb - the mulch keeps the soil moist and they pull out very easily.

[nedwina]

>>I am having second thoughts, but I am tired of pulling weeds

there is this theory of tilling / hoeing / cultivating between rows to "weed"

there is also a theory of covering everything with mulch to prevent the weeds from sprouting. end of season you dig/till in the mulch and that improves the soil.

either approach involves work. one doesn't have much long term benefit, the other has a lot of long term benefit.

I mulch, using primarily grass clipping and chopped leaves. in my roughly 1000 sq ft garden I'd estimate I spend perhaps 40-50 minutes _per season_ on "weeding" - the odd weed pokes through now and then - stands out like a sore thumb - the mulch keeps the soil moist and they pull out very easily.

We should all have such a hard time with our weeds, LOL!

My main garden is 6000 sf, and I have three auxiliary plots. I'd love to be able to cover my garden with thick mulch all over, (where appropriate) but I can't generate enough field cuttings to do the whole thing. And there's no way I'm buying bales of straw or whatever. (Yikes!) So depending on what's growing, that determines how I deal with the weeds. Some kind of natural, break downable mulch, or the Lumite, hoeing & cultivating, smother cropping, etc.~

[Dillbert]

>>cover my garden . . .

indeed. I've got a very strong organic bend to my gardening - but I can also do math. the extremists who insist the entire world should go natural/organic/sustainable obviously can't do simple math because on a huge scale it is no longer doable - there just ain't enough cow poop in the world to meet the simplest nitrogen demand of food crops. the theory works, but the demand side to support the current global population makes the supply side completely inadequate.

depending on where you are and how much space you have - there are some interesting options.

spoiled hay / wet straw / crop "residual" / barn/stall muck - essentially a large scale composting operation - interrupt it mid stream for mulch, mulch continues to break down & gets tilled in....

anywhere with combine/harvester ops you can get a trailer towed to collect the chaff - it's gonna be a "by the ton" kind of thing - them folks don't talk "pick up load size."

depending on one's degree of rabidity re: pesticides/herbicides/chemicals - chat up your local lawn cutters for their clippings.

tree trimmings/chippings - these are also a good source but one needs to stay 2 years ahead of the demand - basically composting the chips before using as mulch.

that scale of composting also requires some mechanical / power assistance. 6000 sq ft, four inches deep is 70+ cubic yards - multiple full size 18 wheel dumpers.

[nedwina]

>>cover my garden . . .

indeed. I've got a very strong organic bend to my gardening - but I can also do math. the extremists who insist the entire world should go natural/organic/sustainable obviously can't do simple math because on a huge scale it is no longer doable - there just ain't enough cow poop in the world to meet the simplest nitrogen demand of food crops. the theory works, but the demand side to support the current global population makes the supply side completely inadequate.

depending on where you are and how much space you have - there are some interesting options.

spoiled hay / wet straw / crop "residual" / barn/stall muck - essentially a large scale composting operation - interrupt it mid stream for mulch, mulch continues to break down & gets tilled in....

anywhere with combine/harvester ops you can get a trailer towed to collect the chaff - it's gonna be a "by the ton" kind of thing - them folks don't talk "pick up load size."

depending on one's degree of rabidity re: pesticides/herbicides/chemicals - chat up your local lawn cutters for their clippings.

tree trimmings/chippings - these are also a good source but one needs to stay 2 years ahead of the demand - basically composting the chips before using as mulch.

that scale of composting also requires some mechanical / power assistance. 6000 sq ft, four inches deep is 70+ cubic yards - multiple full size 18 wheel dumpers.

Some good ideas, but sourcing alot of that sort of stuff locally is impossible here. Or not a good option because I am one of those extremists who refuses to have any chemical/potentially harmful inputs, LOL. My birds, bugs & critters are crucial to my operation. I am working on generating my own material for compost & mulch, but it's a slow process and dependent on alotta variables that I can't control~ like weather & available funds.

But even if I could, I wouldn't mulch everything. I've found that in some cases leaving the soil bare, or sowing a cover crop works as well, if not better.

[rootsy]

I plant through plastic with drip tape beneath. There is a header pipe that connects the runs and terminates at a water source. Laying plastic by hand requires 2 people and sore backs at the end of the day. Taking it up at the end of the year is a PITA because of all the residue on top and the stuff isn't "tough" and therefore tends to rip and tear. There are people who use the same plastic for a number of years but to do so it must be protected from UV (sunlight). This is done by covering it with a mulch of some kind. So generally you cover crop between plastic rows with a grass of some kind that puts on height and then cut it. It falls over the plastic and dries out creating a straw layer. You must have nutrient rich soil to use plastic multiple years. Or put a liquid fertilizer through your drip irrigation which, if using a potable well, poses hazards.

If you spend some time on youtube you can watch a series out of the University of Oregon that deals with vegetable farmers and how they handle weeds and tillage... Do a search for "weed em and reap" and also look at the eorganics channel for a series out of U of Vermont dealing with much the same thing. Very informative and a whole slew of different ideas and methods.

Here is the mulch layer designed and built a couple of years back. Works as well as a commercial unit but has fewer bells and whistles. I do not use a bed shaper to create a raised bed ahead of it. The soil needs to be loose before putting plastic down because this thing DOES NOT no-til. It also puts drip tape down at the same time. I have about $200 into it. Rolls of plastic are about $125 for 2400 feet and it uses a 4 foot wide roll (I use embossed plastic). Drip tape is about $250 for a 4300 foot roll.

First is the 3D model

[img]https://jarootfarms.com/photogallery/albums/userpics/normal_MULCHLAYERASSY.jpg[/img]

Finished product

[img]https://jarootfarms.com/photogallery/albums/userpics/normal_11f.jpg[/img]

There have been some changes and improvements to it through use not reflected here.

[nedwina]

I plant through plastic with drip tape beneath. There is a header pipe that connects the runs and terminates at a water source. Laying plastic by hand requires 2 people and sore backs at the end of the day. Taking it up at the end of the year is a PITA because of all the residue on top and the stuff isn't "tough" and therefore tends to rip and tear. There are people who use the same plastic for a number of years but to do so it must be protected from UV (sunlight). This is done by covering it with a mulch of some kind. So generally you cover crop between plastic rows with a grass of some kind that puts on height and then cut it. It falls over the plastic and dries out creating a straw layer. You must have nutrient rich soil to use plastic multiple years. Or put a liquid fertilizer through your drip irrigation which, if using a potable well, poses hazards.

If you spend some time on youtube you can watch a series out of the University of Oregon that deals with vegetable farmers and how they handle weeds and tillage... Do a search for "weed em and reap" and also look at the eorganics channel for a series out of U of Vermont dealing with much the same thing. Very informative and a whole slew of different ideas and methods.

Here is the mulch layer designed and built a couple of years back. Works as well as a commercial unit but has fewer bells and whistles. I do not use a bed shaper to create a raised bed ahead of it. The soil needs to be loose before putting plastic down because this thing DOES NOT no-til. It also puts drip tape down at the same time. I have about $200 into it. Rolls of plastic are about $125 for 2400 feet and it uses a 4 foot wide roll (I use embossed plastic). Drip tape is about $250 for a 4300 foot roll.

First is the 3D model

[img]https://jarootfarms.com/photogallery/albums/userpics/normal_MULCHLAYERASSY.jpg[/img]

Finished product

[img]https://jarootfarms.com/photogallery/albums/userpics/normal_11f.jpg[/img]

There have been some changes and improvements to it through use not reflected here.

Alotta good info there. Thanks for posting that.

Nice job on the homemade bed maker too~

[jal_ut]

I have a neighbor who spreads black plastic then just cuts a little slit to put in the seedlings. He puts a drip hose under the plastic to water it. He has been doing this for years and swears by it. No weeds. He mostly grows tomatoes and squash like this.

[rootsy]

A propane torch is the ticket for putting holes in plastic by hand.