To grow through weed membrane or not?

[ChrisMath88]

Hi, I have quite a large allotment plot with quite a few large raised beds. I've been gradually digging them over and pulling all the weeds out, then covering with weed membrane, the stuff that allows nutrients and water through. I've got a decent amount of veg growing in the polytunnel that is nearing the stage of putting then out. Is it best to grow through the weed membrane? Do things tend to grow ok through it or should I pull it off and just get stuck into weeding when the weeds come, as i said its a large plot so it would be a lot of weeding throughout the season, but I want to produce a decent crop of stuff this year so want to know what is best? Thanks in advance

[The Griff]

I have grown two small beds of strawberries this year through weed fabric and plan to do my onions and leeks through this.
https://www.quickcrop.co.uk/product/...-suppressant-d

One disadvantage is it's difficult to feed the soil once layed so make sur your soil is prepared properly and maybe a good slow release fertilizer mixed in before you put the fabric down

[roitelet]

Weed membrane is fine for things like Strawberries but other other crops I would use cardboard and mulch or just mulch.

I garden on the no dig principal and rely on straw mulch and get hardly any weeds.

[ChrisMath88]

Thanks for the replies, I've covered half the raised beds in the plot so far so I might leave it there and go down the mulch route for the other half see how I get on. Least I'll know what works for next year

[Stan79]

I plant through it as I'm away a fair bit and it makes looking after the plot sooooo easy!

[marchogaeth]

Hi it might be worth checking out some of the posts on this thread http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ase_84359.html
and this one
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...dea_84288.html

[kathyd]

I've got strawberries planted through fabric, and I did potatoes last year (and again this year). I also cut slits rather than X's and planted garlic last autumn - looks OK so far, touch wood . I'm probably going to plant my brassicas through as well shortly, but will use junk mail and grass clippings around peas and beans. Probably. Although the fabric is quicker and easier .

[Monster]

I grew courgettes and squash through the soft permeable membrane/fabric last summer and it worked great. Trying potatoes this year.

[Stan79]

I don't normally plant potatoes through due to earthing up and the foliage covers the ground quite well so keeps weeds down.

[kathyd]

I don't normally plant potatoes through due to earthing up and the foliage covers the ground quite well so keeps weeds down.

Ah, well if you use membrane you avoid having to earth up . I'll cover the membrane with a mulch and 'hopefully' the potatoes will grow happily under fairly close to the surface - fabric and mulch keep the light off, and it's so much easier to harvest the spuds later. I tip the mulch onto the soil when it's all finished too, to bulk up the organic matter.

[TrysHard]

I am considering this for weed issues and the dreaded cats - only concern is slugs etc

Are slugs a big problem with membranes etc

[Kristen]

I have raised beds (4" - 6" rather than several feet tall!) and last year tried woven weed suppressing membrane. I didn't start until middle of the planting season, but this year I'm going to do the lot - bar perhaps a couple of crops that may be difficult to harvest.

• No weeding
• Dramatically reduced watering / irrigation
• Seems to me that the crops / yield were "better" (subjective though ...)

My take-aways were:

I took a length of fabric (luckily 4' width of my beds suits a roll of membrane) for sufficient length for each crop I grew. All my beds are same-size, so easy to rotate crops to different beds for crop rotation. My plan, this year, is to just move all the membrane with the crop rotation. Its been in place all winter, in the position of last year's crops, preventing over-winter weed growth.

I somewhat meticulously made planting holes in the membrane at correct spacing. I allowed a bit of extra membrane in case I want to grow a-bit-more in future years. That was left rolled up at the end of each patch.

My soil is heavy clay, and as such I find it hard to plant-through membrane, so I planted at equally meticulous spacing (not as hard as it sounds, I have an 8' long batten with saw-marks giving 6" spacing on one side and 4" on the other) and then put the membrane over the top.

I tried various means of holding the membrane down. A scattering of bricks and planks etc., but the thing that worked best for me was Staple-shaped pegs made from old fencing wire (which is neigh on impossible to get straight/taught enough for reuse anyway). These are about 2' long plus "legs" at each end of about 9". over the winter the sections held down by bricks etc. have got blown about but the staple-pegged sections have not moved at all.

I am pretty much no-dig here; I took up the membrane in the Autumn, spread manure / compost, and put the membrane back down.

I'm a bit wary about harvesting root crops. My parsnips were planted before I started using membrane last year ... but the Leeks were planted through it. In fact they have been easier to harvest than I expected. Pull membrane back (to where the plants are), stick a fork under and loosen, and then pull the leeks up through the membrane.

Parsnips would probably be fine as the foliage has pretty much disappeared in Winter when I harvest them. So I could cut off any foliage and then roll back membrane, and then dig up.

Carrots? No idea! I sow a row, can't see that working. Might use something inbetween the rows - maybe cardboard will be easier.

Potatoes - not sure. I quite like earthing up - it keeps any late frost off. Plants sprout into a clump so not easy to contain them to a plant-hole in the membrane. Someone on the forums has recommended making a slit in the membrane, to give the plant some elbow-room to grow. I've never had a weed problem with spuds as their foliage excludes all light, and earthing up does the job of weeding until then ...

Onions / Garlic a bit fiddly as the holes are very close together. But that's only an issue when making the holes in the membrane in the first place.


Leeks planted through membrane - July


October



over winter. Wind-blown - bricks on the left, staple-pegs on the right. Neither adjusted at all during the winter, so this is as-is left by the wind.


Staple-pegs

[marchogaeth]

I was wondering how you managed the membrane with different spacings, I thought it would have to be something like this. Your membrane does look good quality, there is some very flimsy material around posing as weed suppressing.

[janzbro]

great post Kristen, thats what I hope to emulate (copy) eventually.

[kathyd]

I've done this with my strawberries and it's been fab. Have to say though that the heavy landscaping fabric you've used Kirsten does seem to fray a lot, and this makes it (for me) much harder to cut and to use. I tried some 'flimsy' stuff last year and it was rubbish, but this year I've got a different one and it's much better quality, although needs a layer of mulch on top to fully exclude light and to protect the fabric. I don't find this a problem personally, but your heavier one won't need that extra layer as badly. At least it cuts cleanly and easily, and is lighter for me to haul around . How do you deal with the problem of fraying edges?

In terms of carrots, you could try cutting slits across the fabric rather than holes, like I've done with my garlic?