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  • From: HackettShark AT aol.com
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Mulches
  • Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2003 18:21:06 EST

Pam

We have been using red, black, and clear, and we haven't seen any difference on weed pressure using any of these.  The problem with the plastic is the disposal part.  I really like it for getting crops to the market about 30 days earlier on a normal year and an extra 30 days sales on most crops get you to the market a lot earlier lets you have a price advantage. 

Most of the time anymore the pinhookers are shipping in a couple of weeks ahead of the early crops so, the price edge is no advantage, but there are a lot of other advantages.  It really cut down on the labor to do the weeding and has really helped us with disease and blights.  The plastic hold the moisture in the ground a lot longer and as dry as we have been the crops with mulch did real well last year were as the row crops that had to be cultivated just dried up.

Have found a plastic product the corn assn. is working on that is degradable, hopefully I can get hold of some of their product to do a test with.  This would be a renewable product that can be produced right here in Iowa.

Phil



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