Row Covers: The No-Spray Way to Protect Plants

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The best edge-anchoring plan involves attaching the row cover’s long edges to bamboo poles, straight saplings or pieces of 2-by-2 lumber. Use a stapler to make the hems and then slide in the poles. This makes it easy to lift the covers off for weeding and to allow pollination.  
The best edge-anchoring plan involves attaching the row cover’s long edges to bamboo poles, straight saplings or pieces of 2-by-2 lumber. Use a stapler to make the hems and then slide in the poles. This makes it easy to lift the covers off for weeding and to allow pollination.  
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Row covers work great to protect your crops from a wide variety of pests, including: cabbageworms, flea beetles, squash bugs, potato beetles, root maggots, leaf miners, cucumber beetles, army worms, grasshoppers, squash vine borers, deer, rabbits and birds.
Row covers work great to protect your crops from a wide variety of pests, including: cabbageworms, flea beetles, squash bugs, potato beetles, root maggots, leaf miners, cucumber beetles, army worms, grasshoppers, squash vine borers, deer, rabbits and birds.
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Grasshoppers would have demolished these pretty greens if they could have gotten to them. But with tulle, they're standing strong in September.
Grasshoppers would have demolished these pretty greens if they could have gotten to them. But with tulle, they're standing strong in September.
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In late summer when fall broccoli faces a formidable lineup of insect pests, tulle will keep them off of seedlings without retaining heat.
In late summer when fall broccoli faces a formidable lineup of insect pests, tulle will keep them off of seedlings without retaining heat.
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Robins and many other birds love black raspberries, but bird netting is hard to use with brambles because it gets stuck in the thorns. Tulle sticks some, too, but not nearly as badly as bird netting.
Robins and many other birds love black raspberries, but bird netting is hard to use with brambles because it gets stuck in the thorns. Tulle sticks some, too, but not nearly as badly as bird netting.
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Ripening fruit is a tempting treat for birds and squirrels. You can prevent losses by covering your tree with a layer of tulle netting, gathering and securing it around the trunk of the tree.
Ripening fruit is a tempting treat for birds and squirrels. You can prevent losses by covering your tree with a layer of tulle netting, gathering and securing it around the trunk of the tree.
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These lucky cucumbers never knew the presence of single cucumber beetle.
These lucky cucumbers never knew the presence of single cucumber beetle.

In many organic gardeners’ storage sheds lurk what look like stashes of dirty bed linens. These are actually sheets of reusable fabric row covers, which serve as barriers between plants and those creatures that would destroy them. Without ever picking up a sprayer, you can use row covers to eliminate problem insects, and prevent browsing by rabbits and deer, too. When combined with a weed-suppressing mulch (such as straw or grass clippings spread over wet newspapers), row covers often increase yields of peppers, strawberries and cucumber-family crops by more than a third.

Unlike plastic, which blocks rain and quickly heats up in the sun, the zillions of tiny holes in fabric row covers let rain in and heat out. Perforated plastic row covers do vent out hot air through thousands of holes or slits, but they are much less durable than breathable fabric row covers, which can be reused for several years and serve multiple purposes. With fabric row covers in place over your spring salad patch, you can stop worrying about biting winds and hungry rabbits. In summer, you can sleep easy knowing your melons are safe from four- and six-legged saboteurs that sneak in at night.

Lessons In Light

Garden row covers come in different weights, with thick versions such as Agribon 50 or various “frost blankets” providing up to 8 degrees of frost protection. The density needed to retain heat comes at a cost, however, because heavyweight covers admit only 50 percent of available light. This level of light deprivation nearly offsets these covers’ insulating benefit, though thick covers are great to use in late winter to promote heavy, early production of strawberries and fall-bearing raspberries such as the ‘Heritage’ variety.

Midweight row covers, such as Agribon 19, Reemay and Covertan 17, admit 75 percent to 85 percent of available light. They also provide 2 to 4 degrees of frost protection and excellent buffering of strong winds. The fibers in midweight row covers are dense enough to provide multiseason durability, but still porous enough to admit rain and ventilate themselves on sunny days. Should a serious cold snap hit, you can simply add a sheet of plastic or throw an old blanket on top of the row cover.

  • Published on Feb 1, 2008
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