On Mon, 15 Jun 2015 07:53:41 -0700, sf > wrote:

>On Mon, 15 Jun 2015 07:57:11 -0600, Janet B >
>wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 15 Jun 2015 05:18:48 -0700 (PDT), Kalmia
>> > wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >>
>> >> I'm going to try making some myself and found a recipe worth trying.
>> >> Using grocery store tomatoes (that will sit on the counter and ripen
>> >> for a few days first). If what I make tastes even remotely like this,
>> >> I'll buy organic plum tomatoes from the farmers market next, because
>> >> they're picked at a riper stage.
>> >> http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/arom...asted-tomatoes
>> >
>> >
>> >Thanks for the link. Looks like something to try when my bumper crop comes in - ha - I don't even have the yellow flowers yet.
>> >
>> >Should be dynamite on toast with grated cheese on top.
>>
>> I have golf ball size green tomatoes and lots of flowers. We've had
>> an o.k. spring for tomatoes. Also, I am trying this for the first
>> time. http://tinyurl.com/olawq94 I'm impressed. I've had this stuff
>> in the house for years and years and never got around to trying it.
>> The plants are chest high with stems that are stout.
>> Good Luck with your plants this year.
>> Janet
>
>I'm not much of a gardener so I'm only familiar with shade fabric and
>haven't known about anything red before this. Is the mulch cloth
>secured between plants in any way? How do you get water to the
>plants, is it porous?

Currently there are maybe a half dozen colors of plastic mulch to
achieve different things. The red has been around awhile and I've had
it in my gardening closet and just never got around to it. The red
is specifically for tomatoes and the tomato family (nightshade family
which includes peppers, eggplant etc.) The red plastic reflects light
that makes the tomatoes grow stronger stems and produce more and
bigger. Normally at this time of year my tomato plants would maybe be
knee high. Today they are shoulder high and appear to be setting
fruit on all the blossoms instead of dropping blossoms.
With any plastic mulch, you have to run soaker hoses beneath the
mulch. I have been running soaker hoses to my vegetable gardens for
probably 20 years. With soakers the water gets directly to the roots
instead of being diverted by foliage and wind. The plastic mulches
are not porous. You secure the plastic with landscape pins -- two
wire legs maybe 3-4 inches long with a 1-inch crosspiece holding the
legs together.
Janet US