red plastic mulch

in winter good here..but that doesnt stop me of future thinking of this yrs planting plans..
question.. anyone have any experience using the red plastic mulch under your tomato plants??
sellers say that it raises soil temps some..but biggest benifit is reflection of red light and increasing
fruiting...
i think i will try it on my tomatoes..just for the experiement and see if i get more tomatoes..
jealous of u all down in the south.. already planting.. sigh..:)
good luck to ya all.....

I was present at the NE Vegetable Growers Conference in MA quite a few years ago when Clemson U introduced the red plastic mulch. Initially it was said that it incresed production about 20% and then those figures went down and down and now are about a 10% increase.

So, if you have a plant with 10 tomatoes and you get one more is that really worth the high cost of that red much? I don't think so.

And what's not said is that it was tested using typical det hybrid tomatoes as grown on commercial farms and the red has to show at least 2 ft on either side of the plants that are in rows.

When I see so many places touting it and not saying anything about that I just wince, I really do.

Carolyn

tropicalnut777, last year (2011), I tried out the red mulch on twenty plants--all determinates if that makes a difference. Like you, I was reading all the new catalogs in the dead of winter and thought it would be fun to try. I did not have a control group as planned as I ended up breaking two fingers and needing surgery. But I had grown two of the three varieties before. So this was not a very scientific test. I really didn't notice much difference in production of the plants with red mulch as opposed to previous years without red mulch. I do amend by beds every year with composted chicken manure/oak leaves and composted cotton burr so the plants looked good and healthy until the drought set in. I got very good production from all plants with minimal care and regular watering. The mulch did a very good job at weed blocking and that was a very big help as I wasn't supposed to dig in the dirt at that time (yeah, right! like one hand in a cast was going to stop me).

So all in all, unscientifically I would say that I really didn't notice better production. But my tomato bed stayed nice and weed free and neat looking. Actually, after the plants pooped out due to drought and high heat, I pulled the plants but left the mulch. No weeds all summer in that patch and weeds did make it through the heavy landscaping mulch I put down in some of my rose beds. Weeds always seem to be much more ferocious during drought, don't they? And the red did add a jaunty air to the bed =D. And the mulch looked good when I pulled it up a couple of weeks ago. So I can use it again.

So if you are going to buy plastic weed block anyway and you would like to color-code your beds then go on a buy it. You can also get some green plastic mulch for the watermelons, etc. But I don't really think I got any better production with just the small sampling of tomato plants that I had.

thanks carolyn..and terri... i guess like all gardeners..we want to try anything..
even if its just for fun or unscientific experiment.. :)
i plan to put in around 60 tomatoes..not alot..but standard of what others here do..
i usually mulch my tomatoes with straw..or newspapers.. around 1st week of july..when its good
and hot..and i know the plants benifit from cooling of the soil some..
sorry to hear about your accident terri..the broken fingers..ouch..:(
my tomatoes go in really good soil..i ammend it with leaves and rabbit manure in the fall..
spade it under..by may its all rotted down..then i add kelp/epsom salt..
im jealous of u all in texas..good access to cotton by products.. sigh.. :)
hope u in the grand state of texas have a better yr in 2012 !!! last was a scorcher for ya all..
thanks for comments on red plastic..