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Soil's warm, time to plant vegetables
(continued) The use of reflective mulch increases the tomato yield tow and a half times over uncovered soil. Cucumber yield is increased 10 times when grown on reflective mulch. This increase in yield can be attributed to the silver mulch because aphids can transmit viruses in just a few seconds. Along with all these benefits, the mulch stops all weed growth and reduces evaporation, which helps save water. It takes one or two inches of water per week to keep grass green. By using the above gardening aids, you can raise healthy organic vegetables for your family and only use half as much water as you would for grass. Another product is one that eliminates worms in apples. It is isomate-C plus. This is a plastic strip that looks like a tie for plastic bags. It is six inches long and one-quarter inch wide. This strip releases pheromone for 120 to 140 days and disrupts the mating cycle of the codling moth. No mating, no eggs, no worms. It keeps apples, pears, walnuts, quince, prune, plum, peach, pecan and nectarine worm-free. This is a safe non-toxic strip that can be stored with food products. It can be stored several years in your freezer. Pheromone is a by-product of alcohol. My apples are 100 percent worm-free. The only bad thing about this product is that it can only be purchased in minimum lots of 400 strips for $180. This is about 50 cents to treat each tree, one strip to each tree. You can purchase these strips and share the cost with a number of gardeners, or you can ask your friendly commercial apple grower to sell you a few. I have used these strips for two years and they really work. A number of Valley gardeners have accepted my invitation to visit my garden to view the flowers, fruit trees and vegetables. What a pleasure to sit and discuss methods of gardening with them.
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