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RE: Red Plastic Film as Mulch

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

I remember seeing a story on Dateline (or one of those shows) on red film
mulch. They performed an experiment to see if red film worked better than
black film, and they found that it did work better on tomato plants!
Apparently reflecting the red wavelengths up onto the plant encouraged
tomatoes to ripen faster. 

Never tried it myself, though.

sara
zone 5, in the heart of Chicago

-----Original Message-----
From: Doreen Howard [d*@fgi.net]
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 1998 7:35 PM
To: Olin
Cc: sqft@listbot.com
Subject: Re: Red Plastic Film as Mulch


Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Red plastic film reflects the red wavelengths in the light spectrum up on
the plant leaves and ripening fruit.  It will cause fruit to ripen sooner in
cool climates.  I never used it myself when I lived in hot Texas, because
lack of heat wasn't a problem.  Too much heat was.  But, now that I'll be
growing tomatoes in Illinois, I may consider using the film. I don't think
red film will do you much good, Olin, unless you use it during the cold
winter months.  BTW, how was the snow storm?
Doreen Howard

-----Original Message-----
From: Olin <millero@worldnet.att.net>
To: sqft list <sqft@listbot.com>
Date: Tuesday, December 08, 1998 6:12 PM
Subject: Red Plastic Film as Mulch


>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>Some of he new seed catalogs are offering red plastic mulch.  In comes in
>rolls 4' wide and 20, 50 or 3,000 feet long, just right width for sqft.
>Catalogs say it increases production of early tomatoes by 10-20 per cent
but
>doesn't say why or how.  Anybody have any more info on this?  Olin
>
>
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