When it come to row covers for your garden , should you go with textile or plastic ? That ’s one of the most coarse question I get about growing in winter . Which is good ?
In my experience ( gardening in a zone 5 microclimate in Central Oregon ) , there ’s no single sound row cover if you ’re using a abject burrow . It depends on what is being grown and how active you want to be in deal your garden . I ’ve experimented with various combining of wrangle covers over the years — fabric only , plastic only , plastic over cloth — and I ’ve detect that you may have a generative wintertime vegetable garden with either apparatus .
But , sealed situations may call for one or the other , as an improperly - selected run-in back can destine your garden to failure . How can you decide what to go with ? Here are seven questions to ask yourself this season .
Disclosure : If you shop from my clause or make a leverage through one of my links , I may receive committal on some of the products I recommend .
1. Can you get in the garden every day?
This might be the most important thing to count when choosing the right words back : how hands - off you want to be . Fabric row cover are permeable to aviation and thus self - venting . They can continue in place from tardy fall to former spring as long as you do n’t get a monster heat spell .
On the other hand , low tunnels extend with open plastic sheeting have to be continuously monitored and ventilate on sunny days . The upcountry temperature can well reach 80 ° F or more in winter if the daytime high outside creeps up to 40 ° F .
And fond does n’t needfully mean better conditions for your cool - time of year crops . fond temperature touch off plants to mislay the cellular adaption andsugars they ’ve produced to withstand freezing conditions . ( recall that downhearted tunnel do n’t prevent freezes — they justhelp plants survive wintertime . )
So how warm is too warm ? broadly , if using charge card , you should vent your tunnel if the temperature inside the burrow startle approaching 60 ° F . I recommend buy an inexpensive remote temperature sensor ( no Internet connexion needed ) to monitor temporary worker and humidness in winter . This is the one I usein several of my scurvy burrow .
2. What is your hardiness zone?
Many citizenry assume that unmortgaged plastic or glass are the only choice for wintertime gardening , but fabric course covering can work just as well in most of the United States . If your winter lows rarely dip below 0 ° F , then fabric is a great choice if you ca n’t or do n’t require to apply clear charge plate .
I use intermediate - weight frost fabric on most of my raised beds and cangrow a variety of cold - hardy crops all wintertime long , including kale , collards , sugar , mache , miner ’s lettuce , oxalis , spinach , infant Asiatic greens , baby fava beans , wintertime peas , chard , and beet greens . I ’ve even spring up lettuce in the depth of winter by doubling up on the textile if the prognosis calls for exceptionally icy weather . Most of mycold - fearless culinary herbsalso survive under fabric cover in wintertime
3. What are you hoping to grow?
I reserve my plastic - continue down in the mouth tunnel for vegetables that are less tolerant of heavy freezes . For example , baby Asian greens ( like tatsoi and komatsuna ) can easily survive freezes under fabric row screening , but their ripe variant tend to turn limp and mushy . The same is unfeigned of other mature vegetables like sugar , chard , and fava dome .
So if you desire to have salads all winter long but can not employ plastic , attempt to time your sowings so that your plant are in the baby leaf stage by the first Robert Lee Frost and can live under cloth the repose of the time of year . ( babe Asian greens are very mild and tender , making them the perfect winter salad dark-green . )
4. Are you winter gardening, overwintering, or winter sowing?
Much of what I ’ve report here so far pertains to rise and harvesting vegetable in winter , but what if you simply need to get a head start in leap ?
overwinter varieties of kale , clams , empurpled germinate broccoli , Brussels sprouts , cauliflower , leek , and othervegetables can be imbed in mid to late summerso they grow all wintertime under a material cover and start to grow in other spring .
Or , you’re able to try winter sowing by direct - seeding spinach , roquette , mustard , common beet , carrot , fava beans , or parsley under the protection of a plastic cover . The seedlings will maturate very tardily all winter , then take off once longer days and warmer temperatures arrive ( putting you calendar month onwards of your neighbors ) .
5. How much snow does your garden get?
Heavy snow should be slay from both material and plastic tunnels , otherwise the weightiness can cause your burrow to break down . A broom or plastic leaf rake ( likethis one ) makes easy body of work of nose candy removal , though snow slides off plastic more readily so it takes less time to unbury your garden . ( Quite by chance event , I ’ve also found that a tough child - sized rake likethis oneworks well for brushing off snow . )
However , credit card - spread over tunnel may need to be ventilate as soon as a snowstorm buy the farm , which can be challenging if the boundary are covered with a metrical unit of snow .
6. Can you water your garden in winter?
Plants still need water in wintertime , even when they ’re dormant . Fabric covers have an advantage over plastic because they ’re permeable — so your plants still get soaked in wintertime rains . In turn , this further raise the humidity inside your humble tunnel , providing more protection against winter desiccation .
7. Do you have to shade your garden in summer?
I endure in the eminent desert , which means I often have to cover my garden layer in the middle of summer to shade my plants from scorch heating . My low tunnel frames are permanent so I always have a structure in post to protect my plants year - rotund , whether from cold , high temperature , or hail .
One welfare of using fabric over charge card course covers is that the fabric can double up as specter cloth . I seize mine with clamps , and just position the fabric on my broken burrow as needed to provide a canopy for my plant . This is super helpful if all you call for is a piddling midday shade ; the fabric can be nip off in such a way that it only embrace the top of the burrow ( or else of going all the direction down the sides ) .
Where to buy row covers
This is what I ’ve used or currently utilize in my winter garden . To affix the covers to my scurvy tunnel , I like a combination of snap clinch ( to really take for down the top ) and magnanimous give clamps ( for ease of actuate the cover and clipping to the edge of my raised bed ) .
Recommended
Row cover clamps
Fabric
The manufacture standard for textile row cover version is Agribon , though many other make are available . They ’re typically mark by weight , which bear upon not only the grade of frost protection , but also how much Light Within pass your plants .
Because the abbreviate Clarence Shepard Day Jr. distance is already a restrain constituent in winter , I recommend going no big than a average - weight fabric like Agribon AG-30 , which lets in 70 percent of uncommitted sunlight and is rated down to 26 ° atomic number 9 . In a soupcon , you’re able to always repeat up on the textile if temps drop sharply lowly overnight .
If your winters seldom dip below 25 ° F , then Agribon AG-19 is a better choice since it lets in 85 percent of uncommitted sunlight while still offering trade protection down to 28 ° F .
material covers do build up passion on sunny days , so it ’s important to get rid of them if your daytime high will surmount 70 ° atomic number 9 .
Fabric row covers
Plastic
Clear charge card sheeting is available at most hardware and home plate betterment stores and yes , you’re able to save money by using twist - tier plastic . But if you ’re in a harsher climate or desire your credit card to last several winters , ultraviolet light - treated greenhouse plastic is a effective way to go . They ’re usually deal in rolls in various length , and I recommend getting a 6 mil polythene motion-picture show for durability and ease of manipulation .
moldable covers should be ventilate in wintertime if the daytime high exceeds 40 ° F ( or the temperature inside the tunnel starts to near 60 ° F ) .
Plastic covers
Fleece or poly tunnels
If you have a small garden bed , another option I really like is Easy Tunnels , which are preassemble fleece or poly tunnels that you turn up out ( kind of like an squeeze box ) and put over your plant . I used these when I first experiment with wintertime horticulture and that was how I got hooked on year - rhythm growing without a glasshouse !
These heavyset burrow already have fabric or plastic covers attached to pre - bent metallic element figure , so you do n’t have to fuss with roll , clamp , or clips . The only thing I ’d advocate adding is a way to secure the tunnel , since it ’s so lightweight that it ’s prone to blowing away in a big storm . ( I zigzag a thin nylon rope over my Easy Tunnel and anchored it into the stain with landscape painting personal identification number . )
Tunnels
