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RE: Red Plastic Film as Mulch

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

I know of a local farmer who switched from black plastic and/or IRT to 
red plastic for his tomatoes.  He claims that he gets a 15-25% increase 
in yield over regular plastic mulch.  If you grow determinates, however, 
you might want to do a succession planting of tomatoes.  On red plastic, 
your tomatoes will come in earlier (and finish up earlier).  No problem, 
of course, for indeterminates.

Bill McKay in E. Massachusetts

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>From: "Ellis, Sara" <sarae@jamtv.com>
>To: sqft@listbot.com
>Subject: RE: Red Plastic Film as Mulch
>Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 10:19:34 -0600
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>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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