Anyone Used Reflective Mulch

[tlcmd]

Has anyone used reflective mulch to help revent attacks by harmful insects? Specifically Thrips and TSWV?? And the results??

[natural]

Hi,

I experimented with the reflective Silver Mulch last year. However, I only used it on squashes and cucumbers. Our results showed that we harvested more fruit and the plants fended off the typical disease and pests issues until much later in the season. I think we harvested for about 3 weeks longer than normal. Overall, I was very pleased.

My two caveats to using it are:

1. Don't apply it too early (when the soil is still cool)
2. Be careful when using it around very small seedlings. It can burn the young plants on a sunny day. We always waited to plant on a cloudy day, or, provided shade cloth for a day or 2 if necessary.

Bill

[dcarch]

Here is what I have done:

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...light=aluminum

dcarch

[natural]

Very nice dcarch! Great idea for a garden.

I like the fact that those are re-usable. The Silver Mulch is really only good for 1 usage. It is too flimsy, it tears and you cannot easily clean it.

Bill

[tlcmd]

That's a fantastic idea. What size did you make them??

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by tlcmd

That's a fantastic idea. What size did you make them??

The idea seemed to have worked very well, so I am going to make bigger ones this year to almost cover the whole area.

dcarch

[huntoften]

I've used the red plastic mulch film the past few years...it does a good job with the weeds, but nothing for the aphids/thrips. This year I did some research (lots of it if you google it) and bought a roll of silver/black reflective film. It's supposed to confuse the bugs that live in the shade under the leaves...I'll let you know if I use less Sevin this year because of it.