I have a friend that uses the big round bales of corn stalks. She rolls them out onto the garden and then plants into the stalks. The stalks decompose naturally and after a few years of that she only does it every few years. Much easier to plant than the actual plastic, but she doesn't need the drip tape or anything. She covers the entire patch.

these bales are year old ones that doesn't get used for her cattle production.

I'm using landscape FABRIC between the rows. No weeds except in the rows. Next year, thinking about putting cardboard between the plants.

Marla

My family has one of the mulch-layers that we pull behind a tractor, but the thing keeps messing up. From what I read, the layers are problematic for a lot of people; they are great when they work, though.

I laid a few 300 ft rows by hand. You need a piece of pipe to go through the spool. Two people can then carry or hold it to unroll. I didn't have any help, so I mounted the roll on a piece of pvc across the bed of my truck. Then I backed up to the end of one row, so I could just grab the plastic and walk to the other end. Obviously, it can't be windy when you're doing this.

One other tip that I learned is very important is that the drip line needs to be centered on the plastic mulch. Our layer wasn't doing that. When it's not centered, you will wet the ground outside the mulch and get a weed explosion.

I didn't have a hard time transplanting. If you turn on the drip first, the spot where plant goes will be muddy and easy to penetrate with a divel to transplant by hand. Another thing I learned is to try and make a legitimate hole in the plastic, not just a tear. The wind likes to pull the plastic back over your transplant as soon as you leave the field. I lost a few that way.

We have used lots of plastic mulch this year and it has been a life saver in the weeding department and has given me earlier production on melons, by several weeks.

I have laid it all by hand and I found that if you make a raised bed, it is easier to lay it. I built a raised bed maker pictured below. Not my tractor, I had to test it out with my one of my brothers tractors at his farm.
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I rented a tractor and tilled all my "fields" up and then I made raised beds in all of them. If I owned a tractor, I would do it this way. First I would till the ground and add any amendments to the row and then put down the drip tape. Tie it off a each end. Then cover it up along the run to hold in place. Then drive the hiller over the tape to make a raised bed. Then I would space my beds out to drive the tractor right beside the previous bed tire track. I drove on the same track and it was too narrow of a spacing. Once I did all the beds, I would rotate my disc hiller blades to throw the dirt out and drive back down the beds to throw out some of the dirt. Then I would have a raised bed with two troughs on each side. I currently do this by hand. Then I roll the plastic down the bed and cover it up as I go. That is how I would do it if I owned a tractor. Since I don't I rent one and just till and hill, then I make the trough each side with a rake and then lay the mulch.

Here are some pictures.

Planted

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As far as making holes I cut them by hand, but that is hard on your back, until I found this tool.

Check it out online, www.standnplant.com I just bought the seeder and I am amazed at how simple and effective it is to plant seeds through plastic. Then I started to use it make the holes in plastic and plant by hand. They make Hatfield transplanters for this transplanting in plastic, but I just do it by hand as it is easier and I don't do that much. I also don't have helpers to carry the transplants, so I would have a hard time using it by myself.

Here are some pictures of seeds planted with the stand and plant in plastic.

Okra planted with the stand and plant

Watermelon

Here are the sweet potatoes I planted using the stand and plant to make the holes.

I had more problems with the cut plastic than the tears, so what you said I had the opposite problem. THe cut flaps would do alot of damage. I lost lots of cucumbers not planted with the stand and plant, but I lost no melons that I planted with it.

Also, I included a link to my website showing all the different places we used plastic mulch this year.

I have not used the corn plastic, but I have heard it works good, it is just 3 times the expense.

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Plastic Mulch

Jay,

Thanks a lot for your response. I had read your webpage and was hoping you'd chime in.

That's interesting about the price difference. I'm checking with one supplier I know and it's $500 for 4000' by 4' of the biofilm meant for full season. It's considerably less for lighter stuff meant for only 2 months. I think the regular plastic would be more than 1/2 that wouldn't it?

How much do you pay for the regular black plastic? How long does 4000' last you? I'm thinking if the overall price isn't a big item in my budget, I might still prefer not creating the garbage.

The 1 mil 36 by 4,000 feet roll of embossed black plastic cost $120.46 shipped. The plastic was $82 and shipping was $38.46. It cost 3.0 cents a foot. So I purchased it from Berry Hill irrigation. I think I used about half of it this year, but I have never measured all my rows up to get an exact calculation.

I looked it up and a 48 inch by 5,000 foot roll of the Biotel biodegradable mulch was $354 plus shipping. If the shipping was around $56 (Just guessing), then it would cost about 8.2 cents a foot.

It is cheaper to use the plastic. But I have heard that the prices are coming down on the Biotel product.

Jay

Farmtek has the product I use on sale now!
http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies/prod1;ft1_lawn_garden-ft1_garden_weed_ground_covers;pg110500.html

We have been using Robert Marvel Co. the last few years for poly mulch. Great selection, great service and the prices are ok.

I use 48" X 2400' embossed black plastic for peppers. I put it down by hand all by myself. I'm getting a little too old, 74, and a bit too light, 132 lbs., to handle the 4000' rolls any more. I used a whole roll this year for my pepper garden. My daughter used more than that. We bought several rolls at one time to get a price break.

I use a Snow and Neally long handled bulb planter to make planting holes through the plastic. It makes a nice round hole with no flaps in the plastic and a hole up to 6" deep if you want to go that deep. I make a lot of holes then get down on my knees and put the plants in nice and straight and firm.

This year I planted 6700 peppers, 32 tomatoes and a few other things. Sort of a hobby now. Used to do acres of stuff. My daughter did at least 12,000 plants put in the same way. Mostly cut flowers and heirloom tomatoes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Robert Marvel Co.

i've used plastic for many years but this year just used it for sweet potatoes and melons. i use the 4' wide stuff and lay it by hand. till, lay the drip, and roll out the plastic on top. then i shovel dirt on the edges. i use a bulb planter to make the holes.
in the past i used it extensively for early tomatoes but i'm trying to farm with more sustainable practices and trying to use natural mulches.
around here it would be hard to get a melon crop without the additional soil heat the plastic provides.
i know another farmer who uses 15' wide landscape fabric to grow melons. he plants 2 rows down the middle of it with very good results. he says the fabric lasts a few years.
i'm also going to be planting strawberry plugs in plastic in a hoophouse in a few weeks. i'm going to try to use the plastic mulch the melons are now planted in for the strawberries.

Randy, With the melons, what do you mean by (two rows down the middle". The rows are just a few feet apart at the center of the landscape fabric? With lots of open space on both sides?If you know, how many rows of drip tape does he use? I might like to try that with standard melons, but also with 6' mulch and small vined melons like sugarbaby. Maybe put the rows 18" apart centered on a 5' bed next to two rows of drip tape? Someone is giving me lots of 6' plastic.

I was amazed at what my melons did this year that were planted in black plastic. My small personal sized melons were ready in 60 days from direct seeding. I don't know if it was only the plastic or if the added heat wave contributed to it too, but I had 3 planting of melons grown, harvested and sold before other started bringing melons to market.

Jay

i've never seen his setup but i would say yes that its two rows down the middle with probably a drip tape for each row. his rows are 300'. he says he rolls up the fabric at the end of the season and reuses it for 3 years or so.
i planted my melons kind of late this year and they were ready ahead of time. they take up a lot of space on the truck.

Thanks, Randy. I had a bad melon year because I planted more than I could take care of without plastic mulch. I've never seen weeds grow so fast! I agree they take up a lot of room in the truck and at the market. People got really excited about the few moon and stars I took to market.

Jay, I also did see some melons planted when it was hotter mature much faster even w/o plastic. Same with the eggplants, the second planting caught up with the first so fast and I am wishing I would have planted a third and fourth. It has been a pretty hot summer...nothing like what others have gone through.

Rustico,my plantings didn't run together, I am thankful for that. I did sell lots of melons. I really liked the personal sized ones (3-12 pounds). Some didn't want to buy them, but other customers talked them into them and they were hooked. Many people also liked the colored melons (orange, yellow, swirl) I am going to have to try seedless ones next year. I haven't had great luck growing them, but the ones I took were always sold buy the end the market.

Jay

Jay, what variety did you use for the personal sized melons?

The professional melon growers will 'flip' the vines 3-4 times during the early part of the season. This will help keep the vines from growing together. When the vines get to the stage that they can't be 'flipped' easily, they quit doing that. Usually that's after the melons are 3-4# or less.

I checked alot of Vincennes melon growers out, and 1 of them took me under his wing when I started out. They use plastic, and then plant a grass strip every 3-4 rows.

Marla

I grew the following

New Orchid- Orange, VERY productive and good flavor.

Sweet Favorite- Oblong Red, good red, not as Sweet as Starlight, but very good

SunShine-Yellow Great taste, not as productive (maybe I didn't plant as many don't remember)

Starlight-Red Great taste wish it was more productive

Little Baby Flower- Red Super Productive, the melons were almost too small and they sunburned and were ruined very easily Good flavor if picked right

Hime Kassan-Red Super Sweet and Super small. Split fairly easy

Golden Midget- Red Productive, good flavor, hard sell (previous years I didn't have problems selling)

Sorbet Swirl- Yellow with some red , Tastes great not as much "Swirl" as I was hoping, good production

I bought all my seed from Johnny's (except Hime Kassan and Golden Midget). Maybe it was the year, I won't grow Hime Kassan or Golden Midget next year. I will increase Starlight and Sunshine and try out some seedless ones.

I also grew Maverick and Tasty Bites Cantaloupe. Maverick had good production, good flavor and held good.

Tasty bites was awesome and I sold it with the name and people came back asking for more!

We grew MN midget cantalope this year, and was told that they were very tasty.

I was looking for the 3-4 lb size, thanks.

Marla

I don't think I will do MN Midget again. They are early but so were the Charentais and once you eat one you never go back!
There is also a great stand and plant transplanter I will be buying for next year. This year I bought the seeder and it does onion plants too. That way very little bending.
The 4000 foot roll is heavy for me at first. That is why I am so bummed my remaining 1000-2000 feet is missing. I assume it is under some weeds some where but I have been looking for several weeks. Now I think I will need another roll and that means starting all over with something heavier than I can lift.

Never tried the Charentais, maybe next year. My customers really like the mini-cantalopes.

I have been very disappointed with the Charentais that I planted this year. They didn't set very well and the ones that did set have been very small. I was able to harvest a few, but most of them cracked open before they were even close to being ready.

The Tasty Bites variety I grew is a Charentais cross. They are very tasty and productive.

Jay

Rustico, you said the melons planted later did better without the black plastic. Do you think the hot summer sun on the black plastic was making the soil too hot?

My grandparents didn't want to use black plastic on their pumpkins; they said they had bad luck with it in the past. I am wondering if it just gets too hot.

Has anyone tried the white plastic mulch? It is white on top to reflect heat and black on the underside to stop light. It's obviously more expensive, but I think if we had another summer of 100+ degree temps, then it might be worth the price.

Here is a link that might be useful: white plastic mulch on ebay

I haven't used it, but I am going to next year. I saw it being used for tomatoes this summer. In fact, they were putting more down to transplant tomatoes on July 4th. The plants were very healthy and the soil was kept cooler.

I have a huge weed seed bank in my soil and using plastic mulch has been a huge time saver in the weeding department. This summer the crops planted in late May really suffered, due to the black plastic increasing the soil temps.

Jay

Cole, I wasn't really making a comparison to black plastic,just noting how fast I got ripe melons when transplanted in heat. Sorry I can't recall the exact DTM...but it was very fast for sugarbabies and larger seeded melons.

We had a thread earlier in the year about plastic getting too hot but it didn't go too far. More often than not, people say don't worry about it because the plants will cover. I think it could depend on latitude and daily high temps. I am at 32deg. latitude and with lots of mid to high 90's and occasional 100+ days, I am leery. That said, an early planting of bell peppers have been standing and yielding all summer even with some gaps where the sun hit plenty of plastic.Not as healthy as plants put out later without plastic though, but good results for early and they are setting new fruit now. Lemon cucumbers did transplanted early on black plastic,March 15th, and yielded heavily for a very long time. Zucchinis direct seeded at the same time on plastic are still producing and completely covered the plastic a long time ago.

This is topic of high interest for for weed control as much soil heat...but I certainly don't want to cause crop failures with plastic.White could be the way to go for weeds in summer.

I have a roll of reversible plastic, white or black but haven't tried the white side yet. I'll try it out soon on some fall crop and do more next year.

Several times, people didn't want to plant pumpkins on plastic because of the rain holding and rotting of pumpkins with that. That might have been why your grandparents didn't want to use it for them.

The early charentais split but after the first week and the water was shut off they did awesome. They are smallish but sell well for me. Probably because I sampled them and once you try one you never want to eat another melon. My first customer today bought one last week and bought all I had as soon as the bell rang today.
Haven't had problems with rotting anything on plastic. It is important to me here in the sand and weeds! I had some PVC sections (little rings) for cutworms and decided to use them under the melons lately to prevent softspots on the underside.

Back in the day, people would put asphalt shingles under the pumpkins to hold them at little off of the plastic, but I think the PVC rings would work better. What size of pipe did you use?

No idea. The guy I bought cages from who dropped out of the business gave me PVC rings for cutworm barriers. I had them in a pile to give away because it isn't enough for me anyway... so they are like 4 inches across or so and 2 inches tall.

The free plastic offered to me last week and delivered today is clear! That's not something I was thinking about using...I have read that it gets the soil hotter than black plastic but doesn't suppress weeds. Not sure what to do with it.

Make mini row covers, or baby greenhouses for this next season. Is it just construction plastic or actual greenhouse film? Makes a difference on how long it will last.

Minnie, I have some leftover PVC about that size. It's not good enough to use for plumbing, I might just cut it up. I was thinking about using something like that, with 1 cut, to make C clips to hold plastic or whatever on.

Rustico,

I have used clear plastic (used greenhouse film) for mulch and it worked fine for me for peppers, eggplant and sweet potatoes. The weeds don't grow that well under it - mostly they fry. Maybe the top 1/4" of soil will be too hot, but maybe that's not a big deal?

Then again, I was living in Ottawa at the time and I didn't go through a summery anything like this last one!

Chris

What I have is the thin stretchy stuff, pretty big roll. It's definitely for mulch. It's only 4'wide so not too good for mini- low tunnels except maybe the smallest of them. I'll probably use it for the stuff Cole Robbie mentions for earliest plantings.

That's used for wrapping pallets, I'm not sure what you could use it for. I have seen Lowe's use it to wrap the carts with plants on it when we are supposed to have bad weather.

It's actually clear plastic mulch that I have, Marla.