On May 29, 3:39 pm, Ann wrote:

I've also washed down my tomato cages, someone told me that they'd
heard different diseases could exist from year to year on them; it
didn't take much time to wash them down with a bleach solution and let
them dry in the sun. We'll see!

Anyone with any red plastic mulch experience? I'll post in the fall
with my own report.
--
Ann, gardening in Zone 6a
South of Boston, Massachusetts
e-mail address is not checked
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Tried it a few years ago; didn't have much yield, but it was one of a
string of low-yield not-very-hot summers.
My main gripe with it was it's thin and not very durable; my black
plastic mulch I get a couple of years out of, the red stuff was shot
after one year. And it's more expensive. This year I discovered the 30-
year heavy duty stuff at Home Depot (white, not red). Oh boy!!

Local Ag station did Real Scientific Tests with the red mulch, they
got good results, as apparently does everybody who tries it.

Carrying bacteria over year to year on the hardware or in the ground
is definitely a problem with tomatoes. The plastic mulch helps by
keeping the contaminated soil from splashing up onto the leaves when
it rains or gets watered. (another reason i use soaker hoses under the
plastic). I've tried to "solarize" the soil by keeping it under clear
plastic all summer to cook the bacteria, but all that got cooked was
the clear plastic. That stuff doesn't last at all.