I have about 10 pots with soil from this past summer's veggies, and I want to re-use that soil next year rather than spend 200 bucks on new soil bags (I only have a raised deck, no ground access). I'm planning on trying out solarization, by putting the soil in black plastic bags and leaving them outside in full sun during the winter. I'm in Philadelphia & I don't know if it will it get hot enough to kill any diseases and pests -- does this seem like a fool's errand? Any tips for getting the most out of my re-used soil?
I'm currently at home depot trying to figure out how to sterilize soil but I find that sterilizing with solarization requires lots of plastic and I kinda don't want to use that. I know it has to be hot inside, so how about black containers like maybe a 32 gal trash can? Would that work? I can't use oven or microwave since my housemates aren't happy about bringing soil into the house.
Hi all, I just moved into a new place on the CO front range with a beautiful backyard that is completely overrun with goosefoot, kochia, sow thistle, and (unfortunately) bindweed. Currently most of the space is taken up by raised beds but there are a few hundred square feet where I'm planning to start a pocket prairie/native grassland planting. I'd like to seed wildflowers and native grasses (mostly blue grama, black grama, buffalograss, little bluestem) as early as possible in the fall (ideally early-mid Oct) but obviously I'm going to need a solarization period in order to grow anything other than more bindweed. Most sources I've read recommend 8-10 weeks if it's not during the peak of the summer but I'm hoping since I'm at around 5000 feet the higher UV index will make up for a slightly lower ambient temperature. Daytime temps are still hitting 80s-90s but getting cooler and it's getting down to 40s at night now. Anyone have any experience in this area? Could I possibly get away with a 4-6 week solarization period? Any other ideas for quickly killing seeds and roots? Thank you!
Wondering if anyone's had success with soil solarization for killing weeds, where you put down black plastic over a patch of soil for a period of time. The idea being that it jacks up the soil temp and basically cooks all the weeds/weed seeds under it.
I did lots of research before I laid plastic (yuck) on my future garden spot. None of my reading prepared me for the sun disintegrating my plastic in 5 weeks. I am at 7000 feet and opted for a 6 mil clear plastic, which is on the heavy side but I didn’t want it to puncture easily.
When I removed the plastic last night it shredded into tiny pieces that were quite a scramble to keep from blowing away. The 5 weeks that I got out of the treatment is a good start but I now have to till the beds to finish killing the grass; I was hoping for no till.
Perhaps vinyl sheeting would last longer, but is not reputed to have the same solar penetration as polyethylene sheeting. Anyone have any ideas where I could do better?
Hi all! We live in central Vermont, so we have a shorter growing season for everything but the WEEDS! Last summer we battled a huge horseradish problem, and it seems like trying to get rid of it just increased their numbers. My husband did till in some compost since the garden had been fallow for a bit (we bought the property the preceding fall, so it was new to us) and that may have encouraged some of the weed growth.
My question is this- has anyone ever tried solarization to kill the weeds and will it work for something as aggressive as horseradish? If we do it now, will 8 weeks be enough time or will we lose this whole growing season? If so, that's ok I'd rather do some container gardening this year and start fresh next spring if it means that we won't have to deal with such a headache.
Totally welcome to other ideas too!!
Thanks!
Just an update here. The summer of 2013 I knew I was not going to be able to garden due to other commitments. I put down 25 ft. x 30 ft. of clear 6 mil plastic over my garden spot. I held it firmly to the ground by laying all of my spare tomato stakes and odd fence posts on top. I held the sides firmly by taking a shovel of dirt and placing the edge of the plastic in the resulting hole and returning the dirt. This experiment was supposed to last one year and then I would take up plastic and investigate. I thoroughly tilled and watered the soil before placing the plastic. The first week the weeds sprouted like crazy under the plastic. The second and third weeks the weeds grew like crazy under the plastic. I was about ready to give up. Then the sun got hotter and suddenly all of the weeds were dead. I left the plastic on all summer 2013, by fall it appeared to be bare dirt under the plastic. As spring of 2014 rolled around a huge maple tree fell in my backyard. Since I was too broke to have a tree service come and haul it off I got to work with a borrowed chain saw. The logs ended up rolled on to the plastic and gardening was out for 2014. We have had a ton of hot dog roast at the fire-pit and every time I had a few spare hours I cut up brush and logs. This spring the remnants of the fallen tree are finally under some control. So in late March I cleared the last of the debris off the plastic and pulled it back. I planted some various lettuce, kale and spinach. I bought some starts of other cool season vegetables. Now about 6 weeks after pulling up the plastic it is amazing. Things seem to be growing very adequately but the amazing part is the very low number of weeds sprouting. It reminds me of the garden plots the little old ladies had in the small town I grew up in. The only thing growing is what I planted. I actually think I will be able to stay on top of things this summer instead of having the weeds get away from me when it gets too hot to enjoy crawling around in the garden pulling them. I think the loss of beneficial microbes and such from the intense heat under the plastic might be a slight problem this year but there are abundant earthworms in the soil around the area solarized, so I hope that it self corrects. I will continue to update.
Hi folks
I am a small scale vegetable farmer. We focus on environment and community. You can check us out, and what we are about on facebook or insta (@jacobsvegbox)
I am looking for some advice on size of set up - I have bought two soil warming cables and thermostats for germination tables in my poly tunnel. the cables worm through a table filled with sand, which in turns keeps your seedling trays warm allowing for early and healthy germination.
The cables are 20 watt per foot, 23.5 foot long (total of 470 watt per cable), and I doubt they will ever be above half power.
The poly tunnel is far from any other outbuildings, so has no power scource. Can someone point me in the right direction of what size of solar set up, and battery storage I will likely need for this please?
Thanks!
I wanted to pick people's brains about direct sowing. I've started some plugs indoors -- that has been fun, but it feels like a fair bit of upkeep. The milk jug winter sow method also sounds awesome, but direct sowing sounds like the least amount of energy in terms of upkeep/maintenance.
How much do you need to prepare the site before sowing? Can you you just scatter seeds on a patch of lawn and will some of it germinate and out-compete the grass and weeds already there? Reading the Prairie Moon site, they talk about doing site preparation through solarization or some other strategy. This area I want to sow is hilly though, so that may not be an option. And if I can get success with minimal input, that would be great! I wasn't sure if just scattering the seeds or raking the ground to get little patches of bare soil would be enough. It's a relatively small patch of land (maybe 1000 sq feet?), so I feel that I could spend some time each week hand-weeding if needed. I know that mugwort is lurking on this land.
I also saw folks talking about sowing right before or after snowfall, that sounds like a neat strategy as well.
Thanks for your help, appreciate it!
Solar panel cleaning should only be done when the cost of being dirty is higher than the cost of cleaning. So how do we know "The cost of being dirty"? By measuring your soiling levels and therefore your performance loss.
Performance loss
PPA values
We are slowly converting our 2 lots into no lawn, but I'm hoping someone here will have a suggestion for our backyard. I tried overseeding with miniclover twice this year, and while some patches are coming along nicely, it absolutely cannot compete with the grass and--UGH!--creeping charlie. For now, the plan is to wood chip as much as possible, (shout out to my local tree guys who dump it anywhere I want and to my trusty gorilla cart for helping move it!) but I need another quicker solution for the back yard.
I have a pet pig, and that 50x50 area is his favorite spot when the weather is nice, and he has no problem rearranging stuff when he is displeased, so wood chips or solarization are out.
Has any one had any experience with something like this heavy duty paper and then covering it with top soil and seeding? Or any other method that can kill everything over the winter? Obviously, we can't use chemicals, but the Porcine Prince also got sick from eating the creeping charlie, so.... if that is the only option, he is just going to be cranky for a week or two in the spring with limited outdoor time in a less desirable spot.
And if anyone has any suggestions for low growing, hardy but edible flowers, I'm sure he'd also appreciate that! (Right now we're mostly planning on clover, violas and pansies.) Thanks with bonus friend!
The two major problems I had last year was powerdery mildew (thanks zucchinis) and aphids. The powdery mildew started when it rained. Ive pulled all the plants and wont be planting for another 2 months or so. I am using plastic totes. It doesnt get very hot here even in the summer. Probably going to average in the 60s for the next few months... should I even bother to solarize?
