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      row cover

Inexpensive, lightweight row cover can keep your garden growing for a month or more in fall and help you get started earlier in spring. Row cover is a spun polypropylene fabric that allows sunlight and water to pass through. It can be laid flat or held above vegetables with small wire hoops. If you handle it carefully and put it away when you’re done using it, you can get several years of use from a piece. Overall, row cover is well worth the small cost.

Here at Seeds from Italy, we’ve had a lot of experience using row cover during our 20-plus years as commercial vegetable growers. Here are some tips for using row cover effectively:

Where to get it

You may find row cover at a local garden center or home improvement store, but it really hasn’t made it to the mass market yet. Two mail-order companies that sell pieces for backyard gardeners: Dripworks and Gardener’s Supply

Types of row cover

Row cover is available in several weights. The lightest weight, usually called insect barrier, is useful for floating on top of young crops to keep bugs off them. It is great for broccoli, cauliflower and other brassicas, which attract butterflies that lay eggs, which turn into the little green caterpillars that nobody likes to find on their dinner plate. They also are good for covering eggplant before it blooms, to keep off the flea beetles that can put so many holes in leaves the plant is stunted or even killed. Vegetables that require insect pollination should not be covered once they start to flower.

Lightweight row cover lets most of the sunlight through, so plants grow well under it. But it provides only a few degrees of frost protection, so you may need a double layer when colder temperatures threaten.

The heaviest weight, often called frost fabric, can provide up to 8 degrees of frost protection. It allows much less light to penetrate, so it’s not a good choice for actively growing young plants unless you can remove it during the day. However, it will do a great job of holding mature plants in the garden until you are ready to eat them. 

You may also find intermediate weight row cover. Read the description for the amount of frost protection and light transmission. Choose the weight that fits your situation best.

Floating or hooped

For most plants, the growing point is on the top of the plant. (Think of broccoli or tomato plants.) Some vegetables grow laterally. (Think of winter squash or pumpkins.) For those that have a growing point on top, you want to use row cover held above the plants on hoops, to prevent the row cover from rubbing on it. For those that grow to the sides, you can just lay row cover flat on them.

Hoops can be purchased from the same supplier where you buy row cover. You can make your own from 9-gauge wire that you buy at a hardware store. Or you can bend PVC pipe to make hoops.

Anchoring row cover

The biggest problem with using row cover is that a stiff breeze can lift it up and send it sailing into the trees unless you have it anchored well. You can purchase heavy plastic "staples" for row cover, but there are plenty of less-expensive options. Here are some suggestions:

The quickest solution, especially when an unexpected frost is coming and it’s almost dark, is to bury the edges of the row cover under soil. That’s not the best solution for prolonging the life of the fabric though, because it will deteriorate at the soil line more quickly.

A better solution is to weight the edges completely with heavy weights: rocks, T-posts, rebar rods, sandbags, bricks, etc. If you are using hoops under the fabric, you can also put hoops over the top of the fabric to help hold it in place. Anchor or tie off the ends of the row cover, too, so that wind can’t get inside it.

However you anchor it, you’ll find it much easier if you have two people, especially if it’s windy. As one person spreads the row cover, the second person can follow behind shoveling soil or placing weights on the edges.

Removing and storing row cover

Once your row cover is done protecting crops, take it up and shake off any soil. Let it dry if it’s wet before folding it. Store it in a closed plastic bag to prevent mice from nesting in it (They consider it the perfect winter blanket!)

With proper care, a piece of heavy row cover will last many years and lightweight row cover may survive for two years.