In article
,
Billy wrote:

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" wrote:

"General Schvantzkopf" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 05 May 2008 11:09:08 +0100, Mary Fisher wrote:

"General Schvantzkopf" wrote in message
. ..
My old garden (14'x60') has two problems, on the left side where I've
been growing green vegetables I have a terrible bamboo problem. On the
right side where I've been growing tomatoes I have a wilt problem. I
have a new garden (15'x20') this year so I'm planning on letting at
least part of my old garden lay fallow. I'm going to solarize the
tomato side to kill the wilt pathogens. I've been using roundup on the
bamboo but it's never been able to eliminate it. I was wondering if
solarization would kill bamboo? It's supposed to be pretty effective
against weeds as well as pathogens so it might work. On the other hand
the bamboo might just punch it's way through the plastic.

One more question about solarization in general, does it work in New
England? The papers I see on the web are from UC Davis. Ma is a lot
cooler than Ca. For solarization to work it needs to get the soil
temperature pretty high, will it get high enough here?

What's solarization?

Mary

Solarization is done by covering the garden with clear plastic for the
entire summer. The plastic acts as a greenhouse so it raises the
temperature of the soil to 110F.

Thank you. It would also keep the soil dry though, which isn't good for
most
plants.

Mary, the point is to sterilize the ground, to get rid of
vegetative pests. So, yeah, it wouldn't be good for any plant
under the plastic. A little moisture though, would probably help
in the transfer of heat.

Hm. Might try that on the main garden bed this year to finish killing
out the bindweed and wild sunflower. I intend to ONLY container garden
this year (except for Okra out front) so I could lay down heavy mil
plastic and put the pots on top of that.

I won't have to weed! (happy dance!)
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Peace! Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a Bitch."
-- Jack Nicholson