How is the plastic working for you? Is rain rolling away from your plants because of it? Are the plants growing well?

Rachel

when you say plastic mulch do you mean sheets or shredded?
I'm not sure when to remove it but if you want to put down straw I would remove the plastic first.

Is it water and air permeable woven plastic 'weed barrier' or just solid plastic?

As for temperature, black plastic is counter-intuitive. It actually works as an insulation - there is an air gap between the soil and plastic, and the soil below remains cooler - even if the plastic is too hot to touch.

Clear plastic is the opposite - that will get pretty hot under the film, not on top.

I'd remove it if its solid plastic. Woven plastic you could keep, but there are distinct advantages with straw - the chief being that the worms will start to digest and incorporate it into the soil, where as they won't with the plastic.

Its only been about a week, but they do look good -I posted a few pics. We haven't had any real rain since May 10th. I sure hope we don't have another drought. I have been hand watering them through the holes in the plastic.

david52

I tested the soil temperature - it was about 77 in the unmulched part of the garden and about 88d in the holes in the black plastic sheeting (solid 3.5mil). So I think it is heating up the soil, I measured about 4inches down. Or maybe its just the hot weather we have been having lately. Temps are going to be about 20d cooler next week or so. I usually use straw every year - just trying to warm up the soil a bit. I plan on just cutting it off maybe around the end of June? and adding straw then. Seems like a waste of the plastic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pics

I live in Massachusetts. I use black plastic to warm the soil early in the season, and then it comes up later and gets replaced with organic mulch. You certainly can leave the plastic on - that's what farmers do, and they pay their mortgage with it.

Used properly, black plastic is not an insulation - it heats the soil. It should be tight against the soil, and the heat radiates to the surface.

When you put in trasplants, you cut a hole in the plastic, and water can get in through that hole. The good thing is that the plastic holds in moisture, so you don't need to water as much. In a large row, a drip line should be laid under the plastic.

Clear plastic raises the temperatures dramatically, and should not be used for growing. In fact, it's used for solarization, which gets the soil so hot that it kills off pathogens that have built up in the soil, and improves production in the next growing season.

jonfrum

Around what time of the season do you usually take off your black plastic, or do you go by temperature? You might live in a similar zone. Also, how do you remove it - do you just cut it off?

Thanks
Dave

I use a combination of black woven polypropylene weed barrier and grass clipping mulches to mulch my beds. I use a remote-read thermometer probe to check soil temperatures. Here, if I want to heat up the soil quickly, its bare ground. Right now, 4" deep, its 35 - 38F depending on how much shade it gets. .

Here, putting down weed barrier will keep the soil temperature much cooler - for much longer than ambient air temperatures would suggest.

This may have more to do with where I am - a very dry and cool climate with very rapid evaporation - night time temperatures say in the 40's until July. If I want to grow peppers, I grow them in containers because thats the only way I can get the soil to heat up enough.

Anyway, with your current soil temperatures, you're in a whole different ball park than I am. That kind of solid plastic will keep your soil moisture far more consistent and really help with soil evaporation. But other than that, I don't know of any advantages.

From my limited experiences with hot climates, I'd go with an organic mulch. But others know more about it than I do...:-)

Plastic mulches keep the soil more moist for a little while and then they keep it drier...unless you have drip irrigation under the plastic or have drilled some holes in the plastic before unrolling it They all will warm the soil if properly installed unless you use weed fabric.

I don't use plastic mulch very much, but use a little bit of black and IRT 100 which is in between clear and black plastic. It heats better than black and still blocks weeds..it is translucent. This IRT 100 lasts for years.

I pull up the plastic when I get to full summer temps - after the 4th of July. By then, the soil is as warm as it needs to be for plants like tomatoes and peppers, I have kept it on all season, with a soaker hose under it, and got about the same results. The only reason I bother tearing up the plastic is to get organic mulch on the soil, which is going to get nutrient goodies into the plot.

I am using the bio-telo black mulch which is bio-degradable. I put straw on the top of when it warms up and a drip irrigation tape. This year I am using aquacones for watering.
It seems being an advantageous set up for this rainy and cooler summer.

I bought the mulch from Territorial seeds

Here is a link that might be useful: Bio-telo mulch