Soil solarization is a non-chemical environmentally friendly method for controlling pests using solar power to increase the soil temperature to levels at which many soil-borne plant pathogens will be killed or greatly weakened.
Soil solarization is a non-chemical environmentally friendly method for controlling pests using solar power to increase the soil temperature to levels at which many soil-borne plant pathogens will be killed or greatly weakened.
I might need help understanding why mulching+covering with a tarp wouldn’t increase the growth of anaerobic harmful pathogens. Is it because of temperature? Because it feels like humidity will get trapped and provide an ideal home for them.
The point might be that those harmful pathogens are exactly the kinds of creatures that might consume and dominate other pathogens of plants as well as kill off the eggs of bugs that are pests and weed seeds.
This is a bit like thermophilic composting where the high temps and thermophilic bacteria manage to kill off a lot of pathogens & pests in the soil, including weed seeds, fungi and bacteria that target crops, and so on.