Row covers

Row Covers to Check Out
Lightweight All Season Pest Control
Thick enough to prevent easy tearing, but light enough to prevent overheating. Nice for use over problem crops like cabbage and potatoes.

Row covers can be used early in the growing season to get cool season crops off to an early start. They work by trapping the sun's heat and warming the soil an extra 1 to 3 degrees.

Tunnels and Row Covers
Tunnels are usually tall enough that you can walk under them, and row covers are shorter and must be removed before caring for plants. Home gardeners are more likely to use row covers.

Garden fabric (row covers) can be placed right on top of the crops you want to protect. Another option is to use flexible hoops to support the fabric. For more information, read Using Garden Fabric.
Cold soil: ...

Row Covers
Row Covers - Step 1
After you seed your row, install the preformed row cover sections over the furrow, setting the anchors deep into the soil.

ROW COVERS -- Several types of semitransparent materials used to cover plants, trapping heat, enhancing growth, and provide protection from frost or winds.
RUGOSE -- Rough and wrinkled.

row covers. Any fabric or protective covering placed over rows of plants to protect them from pest damage or harsh climate.
rue leaf. Any leaf produced after the seed leaves (cotyledons).

ROW COVERS - Any type of semitransparent materials used to cover plants, trap heat, enhance growth, and provide protection from frost or winds. Commercial growers sometimes use this method.

Row covers are placed over row crops to prevent insect problems, sun scald, or frost damage on vegetables. Row covers are made with a lightweight synthetic material that allows sun and water to penetrate while keeping out insects and warming the soil.

Row covers can be effective in preventing damage from insects such as spinach leafminer and cabbage worm that overwinter outside the Garden.

Using row covers will reduce or eliminate pesticide use. If gardeners want to use pesticides, Ferretti advises calling your local Extension Office or a garden center for more information.

Fabric row covers supported with hoops can protect vegetable beds. "Invisible" mesh netting can be erected over ornamentals to allow viewing but not chewing.

floating row covers
bubble wrap
close-cell or open-celled foam used for sleeping bags ...

Floating row covers-Lightweight, gauzy, polyester fabric laid directly over a crop to accelerate growth and give protection.
Floret-A small flower, usually one of a dense cluster.

Remember Your Row Covers. Don't put away those season extenders yet. Spread them over plants like laying down a blanket in case the cold returns. You must, however, remember to remove them on hot days.

Kohlrabi is not prone to serious pest problems, but to totally avoid predators and make my gardening easier, I usually cover the seedlings after transplanting with floating row covers which are permeable to both light and water.

Using floating row covers helps protect over wintering salad greens, or helps you get an early start on planting your garden. They are made from lightweight plastic or fabric sheeting that has many small perforations in it.

If worms are eating up the cabbage or into your greens, you can protect the plants using floating row covers made of spunbonded fabric. It allows for air-circulation, but keeps the pests out.

These include row covers (lengths of lightweight synthetic fabric supported by wire or wooden armatures) and cloches (traditionally, clear glass jars for placement over individual plants). Row covers are widely available at garden centers.

Mechanical controls like row covers, traps, barriers and handpicking insects that are beginning to congregate, can do much to slow or stop an infestation.

Use floating row covers in home vegetable gardens to keep out stinkbugs. The tachinid fly parasitizes adult Southern green stinkbugs, while a tiny, parasitold wasp, parasitizes the eggs of that stinkbug as well as others.

Young plants can be protected by the use of row covers, cones, or other types of mechanical barriers. Edges must be sealed to insure that the beetles do not find a place of entry.

Prepare row covers and cold frames to use when the weather gets colder. Depending on your zone, you should be able to extend your growing season well into the fall. The long Labor Day weekend will give you a chance to get ready.

Keep polyspun garden fabric (row covers) handy to cover summer crops such as beans and peppers if an early light frost threatens.

Season Extender: Techniques and gardening equipment (greenhouses, cold frames, row covers) that help extend the life of your plants beyond what they would normally reach outdoors.

Arugula, mustard and cabbage are susceptible to flea beetles-tiny, black insects that riddle leaves with small holes and can kill seedlings. Cover seed beds or young transplants with floating row covers.

The Cure: Await milder temperatures. As soon as the weather improves, new blooms will appear. In cold temperatures, wind breaks, cloches, mini greenhouses, and row covers will help to raise the temperatures.
...

Even hardened off plants may wilt when first exposed to full sun, but they generally recover within a day or so. Row covers and other types of plant protectors can help even plants get off to a good start in the garden by reducing damage from wind ...

Covering the plants keeps the roots warm without the use of decaying matter. Blankets or row covers can be used to insulate the plants.

Season Extender: Equipment or gardening practices that extend the life of your plants beyond what they would typically reach outdoors. Examples include, greenhouses, cold frames and row covers.

around the strawberry plant (but not on top of its crown) during the heat of summer, and after the ground is frozen hard in winter, but pull the mulch back before the fruiting season begins. There is some research indicating that using row covers ...

Seeds - sells only Organic or Untreated Seed and specializes in Heirloom and Open-pollinated Vegetables, Chile Peppers, Culinary Herbs, Traditional Old-fashioned Cottage Annuals and Native Western Wildflower Seeds; they also sell floating row covers, ...

See also: Row cover, Plant, Soil, Gardener, Water