Just to be clear, this technique is called "occultation." Solarization is a similar technique, but done with a clear tarp. Occultation (black tarp) works well for creating a stale seed bed to reduce weed pressure. But if you're wanting to sterilize the soil from disease and nematodes, you'll need to use a clear tarp. The soil will get much warmer (~140 F) with a clear tarp because sunlight can penetrate it.
I recently read about this process on a comment at Living Traditions Homestead. I'm glad to see you use it because we need to do something with our garden too. We appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experiences.
Good morning to you and your family. I am living in st.Kitts and this is my second year trying to plant organically. I had better results last year than this year, but had root nematodes. They were present last year but not as much as this year. I didn't want to use poison in my small kitchen garden. I started putting a tbsp of dish liquid in a water can with water and watered the plants I know were affected. In one weeks' time there was so much improvement. I water every morning for two weeks this way then skip a week then water again. I am telling you results are amazing. This year I didn't want to do the dish liquid I wanted to use some synthetic fertilizer but still didn't help the plants. Organic fertilizer wasn't working. I stopped synthetic fertilizer and started water again with dish liquid. Two weeks now and eggplant, tomato and ochro started looking so much better. Wish I could have taken before and after pictures, but the dish liquid is helping deceased plants come back to life and started bearing fruits
Clear plastic sheet of size 40-60microns is used for solarisation, wetting area before application, temperature rises up to 149F here in Mauritius, 3 weeks is enough to control soil borne pests, weeds and diseases.
Does wonders for weed-control, too., It's all warm and moist up under there. Seeds sprout, push up and die due to no light. If you get hot enough, it can even kill off viable seeds before they germinate. Only the ones on top, though. Soil is a great insulator. The deep down seeds won't be touched. We've been using tarps to prep plots for a few years now. This is our third season and weed pressure is down in a major kind of way.
I sure wish the hard, ole ground here in the desert looked like yours instead! I know... it's a lot of hard work. My landlord doesn't appreciate my digging up his yard. lol
Where's your grommet making tool??? Excellent idea and work, but staking the corners at the least would really help. Please look into wild edibles. Here in NY the wild plants, both good and bad are exploding with growth in ways I've never seen before in my 45 years of studying them. Sadly, ginseng in the Carolinas where I hunt it each year is doing extremely poor. Praying for you to be blessed with knowledge to adapt to this new weather.
Hey Danny and Wanda, I really enjoy your garden channel. I know that Hoss Tools is right on this one, 59+years gardening in Florida, black plastic will not transfer the heat to the soil, only clear works, go figure, it works with water barrels in a greenhouse in winter for slow release heat, painting them black that is. The only reason I'm saying anything here is I believe you two are trying to help others, the black plastic will not work. You can fact check me at University of Florida Extension, or any of the Texas Ag. schools. For the nematodes try lots of French Marigolds, (T.Patula) , do not use the everyday all around kind. The everyday kind you can pick up every where draws in the bad bugs, ask mhp over on his channel. I plant lots and lots of the French Marigolds and I Hate the smell of those things, some use them as a cover crop, you till them under and they keep on working. Again please check with the ag dept. in any of south. schools. The French Marigold puts out a nat. chem. that is harmful to many harmful Cootie Bugs. Turn them in the soil. Good luck! and Good life!
Looks good I am Praying this will work well to kill all the bad bugs,and disease in you all's soil.Hank is watching everything you do.Oh,Stirfry is Grizz's Daughter's Pomeranian doggie.She is going to have her first puppy they are hopeing today.He has had her on an ongoing live puppy birth show without sound to keep it quiet for her for a couple of days now.She hangs out with Grizz a lot,and he is soo anxious for her to have her puppy.He's going to be a Grandpa soon.Hopefully today.I hope she will have a healthy puppy.I told Grizz that you used a little Dawn dish soap to give Hank a bath.So,after her puppy is born and she is recovered well they can give her a nice bath.It's been real hot there to.Keep cool,and be well you all.♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡......
I love it!! You might as well use the heat for something good while you can't escape it. Am I being thick when I think that if the Sun is meant to sterilise the soil and rid it of creepies, crawlies, eggs and cocoons etc., you're going to need the Sun's 'Rays' whether UVA or UVB, (not sure which) to penetrate the plastic? I can see that straight heat would kill insects & things and the lack of light will contain & stop certain weeds from sprouting, the kind that seem to flourish regardless of being tilled, some are just buggers to get rid of. But talking of Nematodes & viruses that live for a long time in the soil you'd need more than straight heat & lack of light (because some Seeds require a lack of light in order to germinate don't they?) I'm sure both the black & the clear plastic do a similar job, heat certainly kills you just need to look at the patch of dirt in the middle of my garden that used to be a lawn to know that! Lol. Better gardeners than me will weigh in on the argument of 'if one way is better than t'other.' Either way it's another great video promoting a natural, organic approach to weed control. The thorn in the paw of every farmer & gardener on the planet!! Thanks Danny.
Hey Danny, I wanted to ask if my memory was correct about you mentioning having some trouble with the flea beatle recently. If so, I wanted to share something I found out about them while looking up the Popcorn Tree & in one of them I ran across the information that the United States Department of Agriculture had been planning or has been doing already, introducing the flea beatle to several states to combat the Popcorn Tree as an Invasive Species. uhg, it is like bioterrorism to any small farmer.. so sad for people's organic crops.
In our area the forestry dept is wanting people to cut and clear all popcorn trees from there property. Havent been told about the flea bettle. Thanks ill check it out
I live in suburbs trying to get a garden and had a mole problem got beneficial nematodes. Was told they would eat the grubs and thus get rid of moles. Did I apply something that is going to cause disease in garden?
Danny, perhaps next time in that spot you could rotate out an over seeded crop of marigold. They kill at least 14 kinds of nematode, also fungus and pest insects. Probably wouldn't take much more "fallow" time than solar cleansing, would be less work, and you wouldn't be killing all the "good" organisms in the soil, iron and clay peas work too, though not as good , but they do fix N. If your not going to grow anything there in the winter try rye, nematodes can't stand it. This works for me and I'm in the same zone as you over here in North Florida. This particularly after corn, as corn is a nematode magnet :)
Other plants are only a deterrent,!! Planting cover crops of Whatever ‘’’’ will Not kill,m off!! only thing that works is to cook,m in the sun,,, but the marigolds will help, an then only certain types,,,,
My point was next time around. If you rotate out unfriendly nematode covers then the pests aren't much of an issue. It all depends on whether you can let the plot be non productive for part of the year
Just to be clear, this technique is called "occultation." Solarization is a similar technique, but done with a clear tarp. Occultation (black tarp) works well for creating a stale seed bed to reduce weed pressure. But if you're wanting to sterilize the soil from disease and nematodes, you'll need to use a clear tarp. The soil will get much warmer (~140 F) with a clear tarp because sunlight can penetrate it.
Hoss Tools And, in addition to heat, the solar radiation that reaches the soil through the CLEAR plastic kills and sterilizes.
+Hoss Tools OcculTation, not "occulation"...
good catch!
Thanks for that. It works well for tomatoes to get rid of wilt and other diseases from the soil as well.
I have read that if you support the clear plastic up about 4" it will raise the temperature like a greenhouse. This will help with the sterilation.
Awwww... cute Hank! He's really growing! Love the ears, and I noticed he has a really long..... tail too! Adorable.....
Just love sweet Hank!
Thank you Danny!
I've used that process to start new areas.
Praying and believing this will work for you.💒
I recently read about this process on a comment at Living Traditions Homestead. I'm glad to see you use it because we need to do something with our garden too. We appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experiences.
Hopefully it’ll work out 😃
Good morning to you and your family. I am living in st.Kitts and this is my second year trying to plant organically. I had better results last year than this year, but had root nematodes. They were present last year but not as much as this year. I didn't want to use poison in my small kitchen garden. I started putting a tbsp of dish liquid in a water can with water and watered the plants I know were affected. In one weeks' time there was so much improvement. I water every morning for two weeks this way then skip a week then water again. I am telling you results are amazing.
This year I didn't want to do the dish liquid I wanted to use some synthetic fertilizer but still didn't help the plants. Organic fertilizer wasn't working. I stopped synthetic fertilizer and started water again with dish liquid. Two weeks now and eggplant, tomato and ochro started looking so much better. Wish I could have taken before and after pictures, but the dish liquid is helping deceased plants come back to life and started bearing fruits
I’m doing the same darn thing in Fl
Thanks for sharing the information.
🙏🙏 praying this will work for you.
Thanks Danny.
Excellent idea! Beautiful garden!
Hank always brings a smile to my face
Sure hope this works!
love your vid's dan nice job ,,,may father bless u alway's u like rebar to hold it down nice !!
Great information! It's a lot of work ! I hope it works for y'all!
Good morning Mr. Danny and Ms. Wanda ! Very interesting! I hope this works..
Clear plastic sheet of size 40-60microns is used for solarisation, wetting area before application, temperature rises up to 149F here in Mauritius, 3 weeks is enough to control soil borne pests, weeds and diseases.
Danny ... Plain to see that a shovel is no stranger. Wonder how many tons you’ve manually moved over the years. :)
Interesting 😉
My friend has them .. she did the plastic thing and then planted greens , when she took the plastic off ... supposed to help get rid of them also..
This is interesting Danny I really want to see if this helps!
Hope this worksout 4 U.blessUboth
Thank you for the video, I remember seeing people doing this back in the 1970's but never knew what it was for.
Does wonders for weed-control, too., It's all warm and moist up under there. Seeds sprout, push up and die due to no light. If you get hot enough, it can even kill off viable seeds before they germinate. Only the ones on top, though. Soil is a great insulator. The deep down seeds won't be touched. We've been using tarps to prep plots for a few years now. This is our third season and weed pressure is down in a major kind of way.
I sure wish the hard, ole ground here in the desert looked like yours instead! I know... it's a lot of hard work. My landlord doesn't appreciate my digging up his yard. lol
Good luck! I hope it works for you. Just be careful when removing the plastic. There could be snakes under it. I found that one out several years ago.
You solarize with CLEAR plastic
You might consider the benificial nemotodes they kill almost all the bad things in garden including fire ants corn worms and the bad nemotodes.
What plants are Wanda weeding? Looks like our Papas Grass....
Lemongrass. We use it as a border for the garden.
Hope this works.
Where's your grommet making tool??? Excellent idea and work, but staking the corners at the least would really help.
Please look into wild edibles. Here in NY the wild plants, both good and bad are exploding with growth in ways I've never seen before in my 45 years of studying them. Sadly, ginseng in the Carolinas where I hunt it each year is doing extremely poor.
Praying for you to be blessed with knowledge to adapt to this new weather.
DANNY,, good morning,, do you let your gardens rest after the 6th year of growing on that spot? thank you for the videos,, have a blessed and safe day
russ sherwood Yes we let our land rest.
Thanks so much for this. My garden has been tortured by nematodes this past year.
Danny the ground looks like it fluffy is that from yrs of working it?
Could you turn pigs into this space and get rid of the nematodes? God bless!
Hey Danny and Wanda, I really enjoy your garden channel. I know that Hoss Tools is right on this one, 59+years gardening in Florida, black plastic will not transfer the heat to the soil, only clear works, go figure, it works with water barrels in a greenhouse in winter for slow release heat, painting them black that is. The only reason I'm saying anything here is I believe you two are trying to help others, the black plastic will not work. You can fact check me at University of Florida Extension, or any of the Texas Ag. schools. For the nematodes try lots of French Marigolds, (T.Patula) , do not use the everyday all around kind. The everyday kind you can pick up every where draws in the bad bugs, ask mhp over on his channel. I plant lots and lots of the French Marigolds and I Hate the smell of those things, some use them as a cover crop, you till them under and they keep on working. Again please check with the ag dept. in any of south. schools. The French Marigold puts out a nat. chem. that is harmful to many harmful Cootie Bugs. Turn them in the soil. Good luck! and Good life!
What do you do after the couple weeks are up? Do you have to till in new compost or fertilizers or do you plant right away in it?
Looks good I am Praying this will work well to kill all the bad bugs,and disease in you all's soil.Hank is watching everything you do.Oh,Stirfry is Grizz's Daughter's Pomeranian doggie.She is going to have her first puppy they are hopeing today.He has had her on an ongoing live puppy birth show without sound to keep it quiet for her for a couple of days now.She hangs out with Grizz a lot,and he is soo anxious for her to have her puppy.He's going to be a Grandpa soon.Hopefully today.I hope she will have a healthy puppy.I told Grizz that you used a little Dawn dish soap to give Hank a bath.So,after her puppy is born and she is recovered well they can give her a nice bath.It's been real hot there to.Keep cool,and be well you all.♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡......
I can't wait to see the results! How thick is the black plastic?
ThymeToSow Its 4 mil plastic.
I love it!! You might as well use the heat for something good while you can't escape it. Am I being thick when I think that if the Sun is meant to sterilise the soil and rid it of creepies, crawlies, eggs and cocoons etc., you're going to need the Sun's 'Rays' whether UVA or UVB, (not sure which) to penetrate the plastic? I can see that straight heat would kill insects & things and the lack of light will contain & stop certain weeds from sprouting, the kind that seem to flourish regardless of being tilled, some are just buggers to get rid of. But talking of Nematodes & viruses that live for a long time in the soil you'd need more than straight heat & lack of light (because some Seeds require a lack of light in order to germinate don't they?) I'm sure both the black & the clear plastic do a similar job, heat certainly kills you just need to look at the patch of dirt in the middle of my garden that used to be a lawn to know that! Lol. Better gardeners than me will weigh in on the argument of 'if one way is better than t'other.' Either way it's another great video promoting a natural, organic approach to weed control. The thorn in the paw of every farmer & gardener on the planet!! Thanks Danny.
What is that tall leggy plant next to the black tarp?
Okra, we take the leaves off after they produce.
I have heard that u need to clean your tools good , so that they will not spread the nematodes all over your place and into even your containers
Hey Danny, I wanted to ask if my memory was correct about you mentioning having some trouble with the flea beatle recently. If so, I wanted to share something I found out about them while looking up the Popcorn Tree & in one of them I ran across the information that the United States Department of Agriculture had been planning or has been doing already, introducing the flea beatle to several states to combat the Popcorn Tree as an Invasive Species. uhg, it is like bioterrorism to any small farmer.. so sad for people's organic crops.
In our area the forestry dept is wanting people to cut and clear all popcorn trees from there property. Havent been told about the flea bettle. Thanks ill check it out
Would you recommend this for brand new ground to start with
Keith S No it shouldnt have to be used on new ground. Thanks
Deep South Homestead thank you
Tell your friend to clean his tiller good ... not sure what to clean it with but it would be ashamed for him to get them also
Great video Danny & Wanda! Are you happy with your King Kutter Tiller? I've been looking at them but haven't pulled the trigger on one yet. - Kevin
Living Traditions Homestead its actually my neighbors we use. But im wanting one really bad.
Me too! Saving my pennies and hoping for a great deal on craigslist!
OK and by doing this it will get rid of nematodes just by doing this or do I have ta do something else
That is what we want to know. Will it get rid of nematods? That is the purpose of the plastic experiment. Thanks, Joey
What do you do after the 6 weeks is up? Do you til a couple more times/add compost to it or just plant in it right away?
I live in suburbs trying to get a garden and had a mole problem got beneficial nematodes. Was told they would eat the grubs and thus get rid of moles. Did I apply something that is going to cause disease in garden?
Rick Kerans No the benifical nematodes are ok.
Would applying sulfur work?
jerry prewett was wondering too
jerry prewett Sulfur will make the soil more acidic.
Danny, perhaps next time in that spot you could rotate out an over seeded crop of marigold. They kill at least 14 kinds of nematode, also fungus and pest insects. Probably wouldn't take much more "fallow" time than solar cleansing, would be less work, and you wouldn't be killing all the "good" organisms in the soil, iron and clay peas work too, though not as good , but they do fix N. If your not going to grow anything there in the winter try rye, nematodes can't stand it. This works for me and I'm in the same zone as you over here in North Florida. This particularly after corn, as corn is a nematode magnet :)
Other plants are only a deterrent,!! Planting cover crops of Whatever ‘’’’ will Not kill,m off!! only thing that works is to cook,m in the sun,,, but the marigolds will help, an then only certain types,,,,
My point was next time around. If you rotate out unfriendly nematode covers then the pests aren't much of an issue. It all depends on whether you can let the plot be non productive for part of the year
HEY Danny, What is the red attachment your using at the beginning of the video?
The bush hog that cuts down the plants.
don't you wish you could move that fast in😀
first