March 5, 2018

 Like with any tool it takes time to learn how to use it. This is the same with fabric.

When I first starting using fabric, I would always sow my bed, lay the fabric flat over the sown seed, then water through the fabric until germination and then raise the fabric to "full mast" using hoops. This was about 2' high. More often than not I would see the seedlings fail. I pondered this for some time and proposed a hypothesis. By raising the covers all the way did some different  things: created a cavity that was too large for the seedlings to remain warm through the night, the area was too large to maintain humidity  around the seedling and on hot sunny days this cavity became way to hot.

I decided to try raising the cover 3 to 6 inches to see if it would combat the issues of my hypothesis. This was an amazing success and seedling death numbers were extremely reduced. I originally used short prices of  wire to make rows of short hoops. Once the seedlings touched the fabric the fabric was then raised all the way.  I found it difficult to keep track of different wire sizes. so I got rid of the short hoops and just used my bigger hoops. I could achieve the shorter setting by placing the wires diagonally across the bed. At each end of the bed there are "X"'s so that the fabric is equally lifted across the bed.

It is very easy to water through the fabric. For the first few watering's there a film that restricts flow through the fabric.  This soon disappears.

I have never had the plants burn up under the fabric regardless of the weight. It takes some learning to get even watering through the fabric. It is very important to spot check under the fabric to make sure the plants are well watered. Under watered plants can give the impression that they are burning up.

One big problem of fabric is that it makes a perfect aphid environment. If your garden is enclosed so no chickens or other fowl can get in uncovering the affected plants of a morning when beneficial insects are most active may correct this. In the spring when sparrows are nesting, I have had them glean all the aphids in one morning. Great protein for egg laying.

When using fabric during a wind event, it is imperative to make sure the fabric is off any small seedling. They can be abraded by the fabric as it is being beaten by the wind. I have also found that five smaller rocks are much better than one large one. UV resistant sand bags would work too if you do not have many beds to cover. At least for the first wind storm it pays to check that none of the rocks are walking off the fabric. This is a great learning time so you know how many rocks you need. 

Like with many things they have their down sides, fabric is not perfect but it is a very useful tool.