Questions regarding plastic mulch in the garden

[RedDirt]

I am gardening in rows. I understand I can plant starts in holes or X's cut into plastic mulch but can you plant seeds too? How? Just cut a hole in the plastic (what diameter?) and plant the seed there?

As an alternate to plastic I have a few hundred feet of geotech felt filter fabric on a 20 foot roll (construction leftover). I was thinking of cutting three or four foot strips of this and using it instead of plastic. Would the filter cloth work as good or perhaps better than plastic?

I have read that some plants like different colored plastic mulch. IE tomatoes get 30% more yield when planted on red plastic mulch compared to those planted on black plastic. Wife is donating some red plastic table cloth for my experiment and I'll try tomatoes in both black and red and see what happens. Has anyone else experimented with different colored plastic mulch?

Has anyone built an implement for laying plastic mulch? I've looked at the commercial ones which seem to me similar to a modified disc hiller. My little garden does not warrant buying one but it looks like a pretty easy build.

Thanks for any info.
Ray

 

[2manyrocks]

I can't answer all your questions, but I think Geotexile is superior to plastic because it lets water through.

I think most plastic gets tossed at the end of the season. Geotextile could probably be reused. You'd want to think of a system of putting it down and taking it back up I'd guess.

 

[randy41]

i use a bulb digger to make holes in the plastic. i transplant into it but i see no reason not to direct seed into it. i would plant more than one seed per hole and then come back and thin as needed.
unless you're going to be laying a lot of plastic (hundreds of feet) a mulch layer is overkill.