Gardening with Plastic Mulch

[Spudland_Dave]

I've got a larger garden...not a Field my any means....but what I'd consider to be a good sized garden. I spent the day Saturday weeding the bleeping thing (wife is 11 months pregnant so that leaves me as a 1 man band in the garden) and my legs are still killing me this morning :laughing:
So, got to thinking and looking a little bit...I think the game plan for next year might be to go with plastic mulch. I'd think a plastic covered bed would make for minimal weeding and easy watering?

Obvisouly its too late to do anything this year, but I'd like to get my stuff together and formulate a game plan and gather then necessary parts & pieces to do this.

Anybody have any insight, tips or tricks on how to get started? I'm not a noob at gardening or farming, but the whole plastic mulch thing is a totally new experience for me.

Thanks for any help!

 

[MMagis]

I used landscape fabric in the garden this year for the first time. It's still early, but it seems to be making things a lot easier on me. I just put it in rows, and till in between. I have to ask, 11 months? My wife is 8 1/2 and already ready to go.

 

[NSBound]

My neighbours use shredded strips of newspaper as mulch between the rows. It allows rainwater through, prevents weed growth, and at the end of the season he tills it into the soil and it decomposes. It's a bit messy when it's dry and windy when the wind throws the bits of newspaper around, but not too bad, if you can get over the look.

 

[955er]

I have about 1/4 acre garden for our vegetables. I plant things at least 12 inches apart. I use our large rear tine tiller on the rows, and a small 4 cycle cultivator between the plants. If germinating grass and weeds are your problem, spreading preen around everything does a good job keeping things clean as well.

As for plastic, landscape fabric, etc., they all will work. For me, it is an appearance thing. I want the garden to look nice.

 

[magicheater]

weeding is part of gardening. I try to mulch my rows early to ******/stop weed growth. Once the initial hand weeding is done the garden is easier to maintain if you continue to mulch. Here is a sequence of how I do my onions. I till with a 5.5' tiller, create a trench in the middle putting the soil on either side for a raised bed effect, put rotted manure in that depression and cover with mulch. Very few weeds grow and I am building the soil at the same time. Onions are plated in a staggered double row to facilitate easy hand weeding. Onions produced are rounder because of looser raised bed.

 

[farmerjim]

i use the plastic mulch in my gardens both plots combined are about 3/4 of an ac, you can also use straw to mulch around the plants as well. the plastic mulch works best for me. b4 this year i use to plow then harrow and rototill and build the raised rows by hand then lay the plastic by hand, lots of labor building rows by hand. this season i purchased a row builder for my 3pt hitch and build the raised rows w/ that then layed the plastic by hand. about 3 yrs ago i bought a roll of the plastic mulch 3ftx4kft, it was about $50 shipped to my door i believe since the price has gone up though, i'm still using the same roll this year. i also made a stand out of wood to hold the roll while i walk out the plastic kind like a big paper towel dispenser, when i get to the end of the row i lay the plastic down and then bury the edges in the dirt working my way back to the roll then cut it off w/ shears when i get to the end. its a bit labor intensive but my soon to be wife almost never helps in the cropping so i'm a 1 man show the plastic mulch has made growing much easier for me and i seem to get better crops by using it. when i plant i just bring out my seedlings and lay them down next to where i want them and then use a utility knife and cut a small square and then dig and place my seedling. i still have to do some weeding but not like i used to, i still pull any weeds that come up in w/ the plants and i also need to weed along the edge of the plastic row and inbetween the rows, but w/ the spacing i use i'm able to run my roto tiller through the rows on a weekly basis except whn i get near the pumpkins and winter squash and other viney plants. we've had about 3 days worth of some rain/showers and i haven't been able to go inbetween the rows in about a week so you see some weeds but nothing like it would be w/ out using the mulch.

 

[magicheater]

farmerjim,
Does that mulch bio-degrade or do you have to remove it at the end of the growing season? Do you a pic of your row builder?

 

[Spudland_Dave]

I used landscape fabric in the garden this year for the first time. It's still early, but it seems to be making things a lot easier on me. I just put it in rows, and till in between. I have to ask, 11 months? My wife is 8 1/2 and already ready to go.

ROFL, my bad, Dunno what I was thinking,...I know theres one month to go, I must have been thinking calendar year...so the answer is really 8 months. Just goes to show how things have been around here recently! But its all good :thumbsup:

Last year we used Cedar mulch around some plants like the Tomatoes and in the aisles...really cut down on weeding AND bugs. But everyone says you shoulnt use wood based mulches for more then 2 years because of nitrogen depletion in the decomposition process. I did the straw thing the year before but around here the price of straw seems to be tied into the price of gold :confused2:

 

[MMagis]

Just goes to show how things have been around here recently! But its all good :thumbsup:

I know the feeling. We're chasing a 20 month old around the the mean time. Fun times.
I've used lawn clippings around plants in the past, and that would still be my preference if I actually had time to rake the yard. They prevented weeds and helped hold moisture around the plant.

 

[farmerjim]

the mulch i use isn't the bio degradable type, i just pull it up and recycle it @ the end of the season. 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.

 

[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"