Instead of spending $12 on a roll of red plastic to put around our tomato plants (to speed up growth) we purchased 2 red plastic tablecloths from a Dollar Store. They worked great!
By Ellen from Ware, MA
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
Good idea, thanks for sharing, good luck.
Wow, if that works, it is a great idea!
www.vegetable-gardening-gnomes.com/ripening_tomatoes.html
Most tomatoes won't grow well until soil temperature is at 60 degrees F, and you will. The surprise is that red plastic mulch is most effective, but if you can't find it, ...
The ethylene gas is used by the industrial agriculture to speed the ripening process. It is not known to accelarate the growth rate of plants. Plastic bag are most of the time made of Polyethylene, also called Polythene. I am not sure that Polyethylene plastic bags, red or not, can produce the Ethylene gas and I hope they don't because Ethylene gas is listed as a class 3 carcinogen by the IARC : International Agency for Research on Cancer.
If someone obtained good results with red table cloths it means that the Ethylene gas has nothing to do with the results.
A plant will grow better with heat during daytime and a protection from the cold of the night. Every material absorbs and reflects solar energy but some materials absorb more than they reflect, depending on their density and their color.
why RED?
Would the cheaper plastic leach chemicals into the ground?
I have found that the RED attack the birds so the RED tomatoes have peck marks in them or are half eaten....
Add your voice! Click below to comment. ThriftyFun is powered by your wisdom!
