solarizing soil

[allensylves]

Has anyone in Puna tried covering a raised bed or garden area with plastic and letting it sit for a few weeks to heat and 'solarize' the soil to control nematodes, soil diseases, etc.? I know the weather is variable and often cloudy and wondered if this technique is feasible.

Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP

[pslamont]

I have had less than good luck doing this; it seemed to encourage the growth of "junk" rather than eliminate it. However, I am guessing if done in a dry environment (like in a greenhouse???) it might be more successful. Mine kept getting rained on.

Good Luck. Keep us posted on your progress.

[csgray]

I have found this is a good way to "force" weed seeds, I would cover the soil with clear plastic after disturbing the soil and giving it a good watering, weeds would sprout, I would hoe and then recover the bed for the second round of weed growth and repeat as necessary until no more weed sprouts appeared. Since disturbing the soil with tilling or hoeing always brings up weed seeds this is a way to get them to germinate before I planted. This works best with annual weeds, but they are the most prolific seed producers, especially the wind pollinated grasses.

Carol

[Carey]

we have done this with a heavy large black tarp... does kill down some weeds... but all around the edges, in a foot or two, you may find piles &'balls' of slugs, so be ready to weed them out every few days...

[Hotzcatz]

My friend, the Garden Queen, swears by the black matting method but I haven't tried it myself.

I've found geese to be very helpful in a new garden. We tilled up the area for the corn patch and then let Georgie & Gracie in to "weed" out everything that sprouted after we tilled it. The geese not only weed, but they speed compost while they are doing it. The only thing they haven't eaten is the bachelor button weeds. Nothing else seems to be sprouting now so we can fence the geese out and plant stuff there now.

[pslamont]

Wow, I didn't really understand how it is supposed to work I guess. I thought the black mat and heat would kill the weeds. Now I get it; germinate them and pull them. Hmmmmm ... Learn something new nearly every time I open up Punaweb.

As for the geese... I have hated geese since I met my first live geese. Hubby and I took a job at a boarding school in Northern California when pretty young. It was 160 acres of wilderness with a few horses, two pigs and four geese. Those darned geese chased me down the road from our house to the school house every day for 6 months. I finally bought some cowboy boots and learned to kick! LOL Ummm, no geese for us. Guess we have to start using a hoe and rake better.... LOL

Just another day in P A R A D I S E !!

[Hotzcatz]

Geese are extremely susceptible to bribery. Kicking them does not make them friendly but a bit of bread or handful of corn will create geese who are really happy to see you. Georgie & Gracie started out mean, biting critters but now they come over to see if there is bread, corn or something tasty and then they help me do whatever is going on in the backyard. They like to nibble on bean pods, eat lettuce leaves with holes in them, inspect all weeds tossed out of the garden, splash in the water sprinklers, etc. They are good at keeping the grass down, excellent at taking out all sprouted weeds in newly tilled ground and generally fun to watch but they had to be trained to be nice.

Should you ever decide to get geese, get a couple of goslings and raise them by hand. They will be much friendlier that way. They also like to interact but don't really like to be petted at least that's what I've found with Georgie & Gracie. That might be because this particular pair were not petted since hatching so it isn't something they are used to. If there is a pile of lettuce in front of them or bread, they could care less if they are being petted as long as there is bread.

[emorata]

i've only done this on the mainland, but a dark tarp or nylon cover left on for about a month usually does the trick for me....another i've done is spread cardboard above the soil and done lasagna styled beds above the soil you are trying to solarize.

noel