Laying Plastic Mulch

A few years ago I picked up a mulch layer thinking if I ever scaled up vegetable production is would come in handy. It didn’t hurt that it was extremely cheap either. Here is a shot of the first two rows.



So for those who welcome some personal experience here is the abridged version of laying mulch.

Step 1 – Dig out a trench for the mulch. Not only will you need the end but the sides up to the press wheels. This will ensure the sides of the ends get covered.



Step2 – I installed drip tape irrigation. The End of the tape is sealed around a staple I made to hold it in place. Just pin it down at the start of the row.



Step 3 - Bury the end of the mulch in the trench keeping it tight and in line with the press wheels.



Step 4 – Drive the length of the row as straight as you can. In hind sight I could have used a tag line but I was only doing 50’ runs. I drove with the engine at idle, in low gear. I think that works out to about ½ mile per hour on my Ford. SLOW is the key. Once there trim and bury this end. On the drip tube I pulled out and extra foot, temporarily sealed it. I will be hooking up irrigation later.

I tried that type of stuff one time and never never again Works ok till you get some organic matter on top of it then you get weeds etc. growing on it. Then the next year you have a heck of a mess with the stuff all over the place. I will never again try it plus it will be in the way till the next ice age. Sort of like when my dad used old carpet to do what you are and now 15 years later I am still pulling that stuff out of the fields

We laid the stuff by hand the first two years of this CSA. This year we have a mulch layer we converted from pull behind to three point hitch. Much nicer, quicker and easier on the back. Our ground is nowhere near that flat though. Looks good.

They use a lot of plastic mulch in my area to grow strawberries.
Putting it down is the easy part.
Getting it picked back up after the season is over is the problem.

A few rows for a family garden would be OK but when you have acres of the stuff to pick up it can be a challange.

(quoted from post at 08:24:27 05/12/12) They use a lot of plastic mulch in my area to grow strawberries.
Putting it down is the easy part.
Getting it picked back up after the season is over is the problem.

A few rows for a family garden would be OK but when you have acres of the stuff to pick up it can be a challange.

Click to expand...

I had about 2400 linear feet laid last year... You are right.. PITA to lift unless you have a mulch lifter and even then if you grew melons or tomatoes on it you have to clear all of the debris... Another PITA... I left it all winter and lifted it this Spring after most of the residue had had a chance to break down a bit. Once the residue is off and the ground is still loose from the frost of the Winter I split it down the middle and take it up one side at a time. Easier to get it out of the "trench" that way.

Been modifying my mulch layer I built last year, adding some bells and whistles and getting it setup a bit better in anticipation of laying more mulch this week for my tomatoes, peppers and cantaloupe.