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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] solarizing soil

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  • From: david.maxwell@dal.ca
  • To: 'North American Fruit Explorers' <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] solarizing soil
  • Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:16:49 -0300

There is an interesting wrinkle to this. It is quite possible to grow very
fine sweet potatoes in
Northern climes, (I am in Canadian Zone 5) by using clear plastic in the
early spring to warm
the soil, and planting the sweet potato slips through slits made in the
plastic as soon as the
soil reaches 60 degrees. I did this this past year in a bed which had a fair
amount of what we
call twitch grass. Not only did the plastic solarise the twitch grass out of
existence, but the
sweet potatoes thrived, making tubers under the plastic while the green tops
spread above.
(If any members want further information on growing sweet potatoes in the
North, contact me
off line. This really is outside the mandate of Fruit Explorers (unless one
is prepared to
stretch the definition of a fruit unreasonably))

> You need to do this in a summer month. Water the soil well, and cover
> with clear plastic, about 3 mil. Weigh or fasten down the edges. Wait
> a full month. The hardware clear plastic I've used will degrade and
> not stand a second use. Even if it looks good, I would expect it to
> fall apart before it does the job.
>
> It used to be thought that black plastic would do better, as it heats
> up. The problem was that the plastic retained the heat, and heat
> penetrated the soil less deeply than with clear plastic.
>
> ~ Stephen





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