<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">I have some personal experience here. Some years ago, I planted a vine against a fence. Covering the bare ground between the fence and the concrete walkway was a piece of cloth-type black material which itself was covered over with white landscaping stones. A year later, my vine pushed new growth ... and suddenly died. Perplexed, I dug up the vine and examined the roots - they had rotted completely, and were black and dead - and there was a moldy odour coming from under the fabric. I subsequently ripped out the fabric entirely (it had originally been put there to control weeds) and covered the immediate area with just the white landscaping stones. Since then, my replacement
vine has thrived, and only occasional weeds have popped up, which are no problem to remove by hand. So it seems that roots need to breathe too.<br><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">----- Original Message ----<br>From: Dolores Smith <dolores_solutions@yahoo.ca><br>To: growwine@littlefatwino.com<br>Sent: Wednesday, June 4, 2008 12:14:02 PM<br>Subject: Re: [Growwine] Plastic mulch, Wavelength selective mulches<br><br><table style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: 100%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit;" valign="top"><p>I was advised by an OMAFRA grape specialist not to use plastic mulch given a negative effect on the
vine's root system. He suggested landscaping cloth if I wanted to pursue that type of a weed block...then. a landscaper informed me that the regular landscaping cloth purchased at retail would not do the job well and the higher quality professional cloth would be too expensive for that type of an application.</p>
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<p>Last season I used straw mulch. I also had more problems with powdery mildew than write-ups for cold hardy grapes indicate should occur, so perhaps it was the season last year or the fact that straw supports the spread of powdery mildew...?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Dolores Smith</p>
<p>Erin, ON</p></td></tr></tbody></table> </div></div></div><br>
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