Mylar Outside?

[troad]

Nice pictures by dcarch in post "fluorescent grow lights" found in the "Starting from Seed" forum.
Makes me wonder if anyone has used Mylar outside during the growing season?
Obviously our Texas and Florida growers get all the sunshine they need and then some but the Pacific Northwest and Alaska growers could use more solar help. Especially this past summer. Would it work?
I'm buying a 25 foot roll to use around a 2ft by 4 ft table so I'll have enough to experiment with but don't want to waste my time or the extra Mylar. Suggestions?

Len

[dcarch]

I use mirror fabric streched to reflect more sun to the plants. Makes a big difference.

dcarch

[earthbox13]

Research from the University of New Hampshire:

http://fishrs.unh.edu/news/news_rele...2tomatoes.html

Scott

[dice]

One issue is getting the soil to warm up, also a problem in
spring in the Pacific Northwest and similar climates. A reflective
mulch will delay that. One solution might be to cultivate
something soft and green that decays quickly (like grass
clippings) into the top 6 inches of soil a couple of weeks
before transplant and then mulch over top of it. The decaying
organic matter will provide some heat to the top of the soil
from within. Otherwise, I would wait until after we have had
a couple of weeks of sunny weather with nights well above
freezing before putting down a reflective mulch between them.

[troad]

dcarch
do you happen to have a picture of how you set up your mirror fabric? Your indoor set-up looks like it is very efficient.
Scott,
thanks for the link. It confirms what I was thinking. Will have to google polyethylene mulch.
Dice,
As usual you hit the mark dead center for us in the PNW. I was thinking of a reflector behind a single row rather than a mulch since our ground takes a while to warm up.
Len

[dcarch]

Originally Posted by troad

dcarch
do you happen to have a picture of how you set up your mirror fabric? Your indoor set-up looks like it is very efficient.
-----------Len

There are two parts to my reflector system.
I have already taken down the mirror fabric for the winter. It is just a big long piece of mirror fabric strech hung by bugee cords (24' x 4')

Here is the other part of my reflector system:
http://tomatoville.com/showthread.ph...ight=reflector
this system addresses dice's concern about keeping the soil warm in the winter, and cool in the summer.

Hope this helps.

dcarch

[brog]

I hope this thread continues, it could help us old southern boys with our early crops. Please more feed back. Thanks

[dice]

PS: I got the "put some heat in the top of the soil with green
stuff shortly before transplant" idea from Gimme3. He actually
said "top 2-4 inches" (rather than top 6 inches), and he uses
mowed crimson clover, but anything that tends to heat up fast
in a compost pile should work:

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...reen#post74960

I had one plant in kind of a dim spot for the bottom couple feet
of it that was struggling after transplant this summer. I sliced
into a pie plate, cut a hole in the middle for the stem, and
slipped it around the bottom, held off of the soil by a few small
rocks under it. That seemed to help. (I bent the inside edges
of the hole to keep them from slicing into the stem.)

[dcarch]

One more thing I have found very useful with the alum/plywood reflector panels;

I bury about two to three gallons of kitchen scraps every week or so under the panels, so far I have not had problems from animals digging the scraps up.

dcarch

[TZ-OH6]

Another option is to use grow room reflective black-white "panda" poly. It is heavy duty plastic and could be flipped from black to warm the soil to white [90% reflective] later on.

[troad]

TZ,
Excellent idea. Will see if I can incorporate the plastic mulch with Dice's idea of a green manure to heat the ground up first then try a reflective screen. Thanks for everyones input.
Len