SOIL-BUILDING BASICS
(Page 7 of 7)
Surprisingly, what did happen was that more weeds under the plastic patch actual ly germinated earlier than those in the control area. In that way, then, the solar section performed well . . .because when it came time to remove the sheet and plant the popcorn seed, Kelly and Barbara were able to kill—by tilling under-more of the problem weeds in the plasticized patch than in the control one.
RELATED CONTENT
However—and this was the most puzzling resultthe popcorn seed germinated very poorly itself. The Sullivans had about a 40% sprouting rate in the solarized soil . . . where as a perfectly respectable 80% grew in the control plot. (Barb and Kerry resowed the poorly germinated area a couple of weeks later, and that second planting shot up just fine.) Neither of the gardeners could explain that puzzling occurrence.
It should be admitted, though, that our master growers—being devotees of such liv ing soil aids as compost and bacterial sprays—were naturally unexcited about the solarization technique from Day One. After all, they were concerned that the heat might kill many beneficial bacteria as well as pathogens. And, of course, since the number of variables in any gardening experiment is enormous, we in no way consider the data gathered from our limited research as proving anything.
Still, our results weren't exactly encouraging, were they?
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