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Old February 8, 2018   #11
Cole_Robbie
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Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Illinois, zone 6
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My understanding of row cover is that it is meant to be placed against the ground, so as to conserve the slightly above freezing air coming off the unfrozen earth. It is still not much of an insulator. I don't even think they give you an r-value for it, so the value would probably be about the same as plastic, or layers of plastic, which is what I would suggest. One layer of 6-mil is about r=.6 to .8 and a double layer is about r= 1.6. I don't think it even matters that much that the plastic be 6-mil. I would just buy a bunch of painter's plastic drop cloths and use those in layers. If they hardly ever see the sun, it won't matter that they lack UV inhibitors.

And oh yeah, don't let the leaves of the plants touch the plastic. They really don't like that.
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