Red and Silver Plastic Mulch

May 2-May 8:  we install red and plastic mulch.  This is one of our little experiments.  This "mulch" (a term used to mean anything that covers the soil and keeps it in place and moist, not necessarily the bark-mulch we all know) comes in a large folded roll.  We started by weed wacking the cover crop and raking it up.  (this we placed on the garlic as a mulch)  Then we flame weeded the bed and tilled it under, raked it out, removing the large clumps.  Then we hoed out trenches on either side of the row.  We unrolled the plastic, pulled it tight and tucked it into the furrows, covering with soil as we went.  We did the red one first and silver second, so the silver looks tighter than the red.

Some literature says that red plastic is beneficial to tomatoes, because it reflects the wavelengths that tomatoes utilize best and absorb the wavelengths that it cannot use as well.  So we decided to try it and see if it made any different.  We also decided to try silver mulch for eggplants and peppers.  The silver is supposed to reflect more sunlight into the underside of the plants, so they get more sunlight.  Also there are no shady dark spots for flea beetles and other bugs to hang out in. 

Pat uses the planting triangle to evenly space the peppers and eggplants 18" on the silver plastic.

The finished product.  Later we place row cover over the silver plastic.  We also put wire cages made of bent arcs of electrical wire fencing to cover the eggplants and peppers to protect them from the row cover.