Okay, so I have had the black plastic in place on some rows for a number of weeks now. This evening, I took one small section off and moved it to another area where weeds have gone insane. Low weeds. Had a battle with them last year but can't recall what their name.
The section I removed plastic from is all brown and appears dead. However, that could change with light and more air. I'm going to give it at least a week before planting anything there. At first sign of anything green, the plastic goes back down.
The tomato plants have seriously bushed out in just about the last week. I now have dozens of tomatoes forming rapidly and hundreds of flowers where many more fruit will be. I am honestly expecting at least 300-400 lbs of tomatoes this year. This is truly the best the tomatoes have ever looked.
On the other hand, not much else is growing. I left lettuce out of the picture this year to get the weeds controlled. Looking at the areas which I did not cover, I am really happy with that decision. The carrots I planted in the uncovered areas never came up. I think they would have, if not for the weeds.
I am still keeping the clear plastic down in the tomato patch. I think that has a lot to do with how well tomatoes are doing. It retains moisture, removes hiding paces for damaging insects and at least limits how much any weeds under the plastic can steal nutrients. If the weeds die off, they will actually compost under the plastic and release nutrients back into the soil.
I planted the watermelon and pumpkin plants out which I started inside. However, moved them out too quickly because daughter and I were leaving for vacation. Now only one watermelon vine survived.
All my cucumber vines started inside died off. I planted more seeds and have some vines coming up now. I'll probably have cucumbers but not for a while. Just going to have to do some work to keep the weeds under control manually around them.
I'm actually not pushing for a lot from the garden this year besides tomatoes. I may focus more on the fall garden if things are finally controlled by then. I have been spraying more weed killer this year than ever. Just trying to catch the weeds early, so they have no chance to spread more seeds. I will continue with using that through the whole season and hope to need a lot less next year.
The section I removed plastic from is all brown and appears dead. However, that could change with light and more air. I'm going to give it at least a week before planting anything there. At first sign of anything green, the plastic goes back down.
The tomato plants have seriously bushed out in just about the last week. I now have dozens of tomatoes forming rapidly and hundreds of flowers where many more fruit will be. I am honestly expecting at least 300-400 lbs of tomatoes this year. This is truly the best the tomatoes have ever looked.
On the other hand, not much else is growing. I left lettuce out of the picture this year to get the weeds controlled. Looking at the areas which I did not cover, I am really happy with that decision. The carrots I planted in the uncovered areas never came up. I think they would have, if not for the weeds.
I am still keeping the clear plastic down in the tomato patch. I think that has a lot to do with how well tomatoes are doing. It retains moisture, removes hiding paces for damaging insects and at least limits how much any weeds under the plastic can steal nutrients. If the weeds die off, they will actually compost under the plastic and release nutrients back into the soil.
I planted the watermelon and pumpkin plants out which I started inside. However, moved them out too quickly because daughter and I were leaving for vacation. Now only one watermelon vine survived.
All my cucumber vines started inside died off. I planted more seeds and have some vines coming up now. I'll probably have cucumbers but not for a while. Just going to have to do some work to keep the weeds under control manually around them.
I'm actually not pushing for a lot from the garden this year besides tomatoes. I may focus more on the fall garden if things are finally controlled by then. I have been spraying more weed killer this year than ever. Just trying to catch the weeds early, so they have no chance to spread more seeds. I will continue with using that through the whole season and hope to need a lot less next year.
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