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Re: Red Plastic Film as Mulch

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

> From: Olin <millero@worldnet.att.net>
> To: sqft list <sqft@listbot.com>
> Subject: Red Plastic Film as Mulch
> Date: Tuesday, December 08, 1998 4:26 PM
> 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
> 

I saw a CNN article about it once.  The working theory at the time was that
it made the plant "think" that it had competition nearby (apparently
determined
by the light reflected by nearby plants...) and therefore tried
to generate it's fruit (seeds) earlier while it still had the chance.  The
article
(about a year ago I think) went on to say that it was anticipated to have
the
most effect for row farmers due to the spacing between plants.  There was
some thought that high density planting (you know that sqft thing...) might
naturally cause the same thing to happen.

The farmer they were interviewing was a row farmer who had reported
earlier and larger harvests.  He mentioned that the main advantage for
him was that it allowed him to get his full size crops to the farmers
market
earlier than the other farmers while the prices were still at a premium.

His experiments showed that Red plastic produced the most dramatic results
for
tomatoes.  But that other colors may have different effects on different
plants.
I seem to recall him mentioning that yellow (during early testing) was 
helping his squash production.  But the CNN article stressed that this
was ongoing research...  (this information is about 1 year old)

ymmv.  Best O Luck...		- Ron Souliere


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