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Dave: Hi! I am Dave Epstein. This is Growing Wisdom. I am here at Johnny’s Selected Seeds, one of their farms up in Albion, Maine. I am meeting with Howard Anderson today and we are going to be talking root covers. It is a pretty cool stuff. It is a fabric. It is great for a frost. So, that it would be a little later than you would think in the spring or frosts it earlier in the fall, we have got one coming tonight and also it is good for protecting against insects. So, I can see a lot of fabric here. So, tell me about some of the differences, how commercial growers, homeowners would use this and why you choose different grades of fabric?
Howard: The fabric itself is of different thicknesses, so a thinner fabric has more light in and is great for insect control. The heavier the fabric, the more heat it will hold in all your plants and it will help them protected from the frost. So, this is EG50. It is thick and for frost control. The 70 looks even thicker. It is a little more for frost protection. The EG15, which is an insect barrier, is supposedly thin. So, we are going to cover these cauliflowers here. Do your trench, next to the roller plants, lay the edge with the fabric in it. Cover it up, pull on the other side, do the same thing. Dig it on the trench. Cover the edge of the fiber with the soil. So, let us go to work here, we will start digging. You want to go a couple of inches down.
Dave: So, Howard, we dug our trench and now just lay this down.
Howard: Just lay it down and put the edge of the fabric in the trench and cover the edge with the soil.
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Dave: That is a good little trick using your foot to hold the fabric down and then hoeing the dirt right on top in front of you. This really does work. This thing is not going anywhere. Now, we are going to see what we have to do with---you said, peppers.
Howard: We have some peppers and they are not as quite as dirty as the cauliflower. We have some hoops we use with those support their root cover over on top of the plants.
Dave: Same process we just did. The only difference is that you can buy this at the website.
Howard: Right, this is number nine coiled wire and we use it just to support the fabric over the plants.
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Dave: Also, we put them across the roots like this. And you can put them in an angle, as well.
Howard: Sure, you could, yes.
Dave: Howard, this is great. These little babies here are going to be fine tonight.
Howard: They are going to be great.
Dave: Come back every week for all of our tips, hints and helps here at growingwisdom.com and check out Johnny’s Selected Seeds in their website for all of the products you saw here today.
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