Gardening with Plastic Mulch

[s78wingrider]

I use old carpet (upside down), cut up pool liner, old nylon tarps that already have a few holes for plants, and anything else I can find to keep weeds down and moister in. Walmart has large staples for holding down plastic or whatever, works good

 

[Spudland_Dave]

i'll try to get a pic of my row builder after work, as i need to harrow in a section where i had some peas and plant beans. i love the plastic mulch for squash and pumpkins i usually lay the mulch about 2 weeks b4 planting and by the time i plant the soil has warmed up nicely and just plant from seed and within about a week the seed has germinated and is just about breaking the dirt.

I'd love to see pics of your row builder/mulch...I try to mechanize everything myself :thumbsup:. Here is a "Hilling Cultivator" I built a few weeks back...gave it a workout this past weekend on the Potatoes, String Beans, and other row crops. On the "non Row" crops I was on my hands & knees...

 

[farmerjim]

here's the pics of my hiller/row builder. i was going to build my own as well but by the time i came up w/ a design and figured out the cost for materials it was just cheaper to buy 1. spudland if you look on page 1 of this thread you can see my garden rows w/ the mulch.

 

[ustmd]

The wife and I use newspapers (stacked thick) for mulch with old hay on top. It is cheap, It biogrades and it works great. We are in Central Texas, so mulch is critical for moisture control and to keep the coastal out of the garden.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

here's the pics of my hiller/row builder. i was going to build my own as well but by the time i came up w/ a design and figured out the cost for materials it was just cheaper to buy 1. spudland if you look on page 1 of this thread you can see my garden rows w/ the mulch.

LOL, I just sold my hilling discs & toolbar this spring because I wasnt too fond of the way it worked
Yeah I saw your garden...nice work! Looks like the ticket for me. Do you use any drip tape or irrigation? Thats my next Q for everyone... AND whether or not I should build a plastic mulch layer.

 

[farmerjim]

no irrigation for me i have an old hand dug well w/ hand pump and just pump water when needed. i would love to get a mulch layer, i saw 1 just after i bought my hiller for $500 used, but w/ getting married this summer i couldn't really justify it, and i think she would have killed me anyway. i'm in the process of partnering w/ a friend who wants to get a bit bigger she rents river bottom land and runs a 50 share csa and grows market veggies, everything now is done by hand pretty much she got a tiller this season, and we planted all by hand. i'm getting an old tobacco setter for cheap and we will be using that for planting next year, along w/ my hiller for other uses. i figure if i can make some extra $$ from the veggies and work a bit of ot this year maybe i can justify a mulch layer used of course.

 

[randy41]

I use plastic mulch extensively and lay drip tape under it. I do it by hand. I reuse the drip tape but toss the plastic. I transplant into the plastic using a bulb digger. You still have to weed around the plants but this is a lot less than doing the whole row. The edges of the plastic and between rows of plastic get weedy but this can be mowed or weed wacked. For vining crops like melons I plant in plastic and mulch between the plastic rows with straw. Many melon growers use landscape fabric 15' wide and plant 2 rows down the middle.

 

[charlz]

I am using plastic mulch for the first time this year in an effort to reduce some weeding. I had read that you need to stretch it some when putting it down. Some of my rows are tighter than others Since we flood here I did some rows not too longer after the area had been flooded and the rest a few days after that. The heavier, wetter, soil made it much easier to get a good stretch. The more dry the dirt the more the plastic would simply slide back to where it was. Might have been better if I had a helper I can see where a plastic mulch layer for the tractor would be handy :thumbsup: I think you still need a helper to get the row started though.

My garden is all on automatic drip so I placed the drip lines under the plastic.

Where I planted Edamame and Green Beans I took a stick and taped two razor blades on the end. This allowed me to cut a slit about 3/4" wide. I cut 4', skipped 2', cut 4' etc etc. The rows where the plastic is tight it doesn't flap in the wind. The rows where the plastic is not so tight it tends to lift in the wind and I put some spare metal fence posts down to keep it in place.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

For those of you with drip tape...do you have any input on what kind to use. I been looking online but see a bunch of options...I dunno what to use

 

[charlz]

For those of you with drip tape...do you have any input on what kind to use. I been looking online but see a bunch of options...I dunno what to use

I started out buying some of the poly pipe with emitters already built in but it was very expensive and, since I water from a pond, the emitters tend to clog. I then started using the 1/2" black poly with emitters you poke in. With the black poly I can pop out the old emitter and pop in a new one if one clogs.

T-Tape seems to be the way commercial farms go. See this page for some pricing, home owner sized rolls at the bottom. Might be cheaper somewhere else, just found that on a quick search. It is low pressure stuff so you likely have to use a pressure regulator. I might switch to this a some point especially for crops that need the close spacing.... emitters add up when you are putting them in every 12"