Some of the best things in life are free , and the abundant vim of the sun is one of them . This is very salutary news for garden and farming soils , which are home to one C of thousands of harvest pest : insects , nematodes , termites , arthropod , gnawer and widow’s weeds , as well as fungal , bacterial and viral pathogens . The superpower of the sun can be used in a peaceful way to defeat a number of these barriers to productivity , using a process called soil solarization .
Conventionally , since at least the 1930s , grunge sterilants , likemethyl bromide , have been used to fume agricultural land and kill all sorts of organism , whether or not they are harmful to the crop . Because this chemical substance depletes the ozone layer , its use has been steadily declining in most of the world since theMontreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer . The United States is one of the only nation that has lobbied for significant exception , despite accept more than 1,000 document cases of intoxication among farming worker using the stuff .
Although a solar alternative to using dangerous chemical fumigants has been documented as being used in ancient time by farmers on the Indian subcontinent , it did n’t really catch on here until the mid-1970s .
What Is Soil Solarization?
Soil solarisation — also called solar land heating — is accomplished by mulching and covering agrarian dirt during the hot season , commonly using a transparent or semitransparent polythene tarpaulin . This is different fromplasticulture , in which a polyethylene mulch is used during the grow season to suppress weeds and increase the efficiency of drip mould irrigation .
During dirt solarization treatment , sunlight strike the tarp and is commute to hotness , which in turn increase the temperature of the top 4 to 8 inch of the garden bottom . This take place over a four- to nine - week full point .
This sustained heating ( between 100 and 122 degrees F ) has been demonstrated to be effective against flora diseases , like :
It will also belt down off skunk seeds and variouspest nematodes . fundamentally , solarisation is an attempt to pasteurize the soil , and while pests dependant on crops will usually fall dupe to the heat , good nematodes and some insect will often manage to burrow to cooler pastures .
Because polyethylene plastic mulch has only really been usable since the 1950s , and because enquiry on dirt solarisation has been scarce while fumigants were favour , soil solarisation an emerge environmentally well-disposed farming practice for naturalise salubrious ground . As an agrarian proficiency that is costless of chemically synthesized inputs , it is increasing in popularity as inputs like methyl bromide are being phase out and interest in organic cultivation is on the procession .
Soil Solarization Gone Wrong
Soil solarization is n’t without its problems , though .
You Can Get The Temperature Wrong
If soil solarization is n’t done during the blistering season or in a sufficiently hot climate , you may actually end up exacerbating your problems . In cool temperatures , the tarpaulin can become a mini - glasshouse that nurtures weeds and pathogens , instead of pour down them . Most enquiry has been conducted in mood with consistently lovesome climates and prospicient grow time of year ( zones 8 to 11 with a high oestrus geographical zone ) .
The Mulch Doesn’t Break Down
Soil solarization also typically require the habit of polyethylene charge card mulch , which is a rock oil or natural accelerator pedal product . It does n’t readily biodegrade , entail it will be present in the surroundings for a long time . The accumulation of small plastic particles in natural environments is a press environmental issue that is only beginning to reach the public consciousness . A possible solution to this problem is using biodegradable polymers , andresearch is underwayto make and ameliorate them for grime solarisation app .
It Can Hurt Your Bottom Line
Economically , dirt solarisation has two likely drawback for the market place nurseryman or farmer . First , the cost of the plastics to carry out it can be prohibitive , depending on the scale of the orbit to be solarise . second , the outgrowth requires that a garden or landing field lies fallow during what are potentially the most productive parts of the grow season : the two calendar month when temperatures are the hottest .
Do It Yourself
If conditions and political economy allow , however , territory solarization is a comparatively ecologically well-disposed method of keep down the pest encumbrance in soils using the power of the sun . It can be exercise on anything from a raised - layer garden to a full agricultural field .
To solarize your soil :
Nutrients are often more available to industrial plant after this process , as the heat accelerates disintegration of soil constitutional thing . In areas with a longer growing season , newly solarized soil will be quick to sow an autumn crop !
