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Hinckley MN

Has anyone tried warming the soil with clear plastic sheeting? I pulled a 48 x 96 sheet off a greenhouse and layed it out on my patch and weighed it down with sand bags. In 2 weeks I'll pull it back, till in the weeds, and set up hills and shelters.

4/23/2014 3:56:29 PM

Farming- a bunch of catastrophies that result in a lifestyle

Works great here in NC

4/23/2014 4:06:37 PM

Germany

If you have enough time to do that, you could probably get your soil warmed up a bit further within the next couple days (I used this method this year, it works nicely):

Where you want to create the plant mound you could excavate the top 1 ft layer of soil (maybe in a 10 x 10 ft square) and fracture the sub-soil for good drainage. Then cover the pit and the surrounding piles of top-soil etc. with the clear plastic. After 3 or 4 days exposure to sunlight you pull back the plastic and fill the top-soil back into the pit and create the plant mound, and then again you cover the patch with the plastic. This way you will raise the sub-soil temperature by a good number of degrees, would take much longer to warm up the lower soil layers if you just covered the top soil with the clear plastic sheet.

4/23/2014 4:14:46 PM

East Jordan, MI

works really well. Works better if you wet the soil first and seal the edges.

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn74145.html

4/23/2014 7:56:51 PM

Western NY

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=62044

4/23/2014 8:51:22 PM

Glosta

Been doing it for few years now. sealing the edges definitely makes a huge difference. I usually just buy 10x20 1 mil painters plastic at hardware store. Roughly 3$ a roll.

http://www.bigpumpkins.com/Diary/DiaryViewOne.asp?eid=197904

4/24/2014 1:14:54 AM

Hinckley MN

I'm not solarizing, just warming the soil. I'm hoping for a 15 degree head start on the soil. One of my greenhouses collapsed this winter so I figured I might as well use the plastic for something productive. My ubsoil is heavy clay, so I avoid digging down. Last year I made raised beds with hay bales and used fresh manure as a heat source to warm the soil. The plants grew well..too well.

This year I'm using soil cables at ground level, straw bales to frame the raised bed, filled with a mix of patch soil, worm castings, pro mix and ferts. I'll treat the bales as if they were straw bale gardens. I use two layers of AG-19 over metal hoops for a shelter.

4/24/2014 10:14:09 AM