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  • From: Rob Halgren <halgren@msu.edu>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Re: solarization
  • Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2005 10:40:39 -0500


Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 17:10:58 -0600
From: "Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>
Subject: [NAFEX] Was: Powdery Mildew control; Now: Solarization
[...]
A couple of things from experience about solarizing ground. First, make sure the soil in the top six inches is really moist. Second, use timbers, weights or anything heavy to seal the plastic. The more airtight you make it, the faster the soil steams. Third, get a soil thermometer; don't try to guess at temperatures.

Solarization cleaned up problem ground for me so that I could plant peach trees in a hot climate where blights and other fungal diseases are huge problems with peaches. My trees and fruit were disease-free with only a late winter dormant oil spray and three applications of neem seed oil spray at bud break, blossom fall and three weeks later.
Doreen Howard


This is a classic technique in organic gardening. If you do it right, you also kill most of the weed seeds in addition to soil pathogens. I haven't gotten a chance to do it at the new house yet, but I would put the plastic on in the early fall on a patch of lawn that I want to turn into a garden (or plant a tree), and leave it on until June or so (maybe earlier farther south). Never used a soil thermometer, but that is a really good idea. If you leave the grass tall, or throw a bit of hay or straw down, you will also get some nice humus additions to the soil. Over the winter the worms and other critters will chew up all the old sod and whatever you threw on top, and after a few hot weeks of late spring everything remaining is nice and cooked. And the real benefit, you can till the soil with your bare hands. It really loosens up the dirt.

You can pretty easily bury the edges of the plastic. Just make sure you get the entire perimeter, or it will blow away. Landscape timbers work too, but I'd just flip about six inches of turf onto the edge of the plastic all the way around. It isn't that hard, and you don't have to move heavy wood.

Anyway, the point of this message is that if you want to pick it up, I have a whole lot of plastic sheeting suitable for doing this. When I re-covered my poly greenhouse this fall I salvaged some of the bigger pieces. Really thick, and quite heavy. I'm not shipping it anywhere, but if you are in mid michigan and want to come over and get some, feel free. I'll be using some in the spring, but I have a lot.

Rob

--
Robert G. Halgren, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Center for Animal Functional Genomics
1205F Anthony Hall
Michigan State University
(517) 353-9136




  • [NAFEX] Re: solarization, Rob Halgren, 02/08/2005

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