Floating row cover can help crops ripen

Gardeners are usually a fairly optimistic lot. We have to be.

When we plant seeds in the spring, we expect them to sprout, grow and give us fruit and flowers at the end of the season. Without this optimism, the human race would have starved eons ago. Optimism can be challenged, though, and this year has been a never-ending string of challenges in the garden.

At this point, most gardens and orchards are up to three weeks behind, and that means stuff is getting ripe late. The prospects of a string of long hot days are decreasing quickly. It’s time to put optimism aside and start being realists – we are running out of growing season fast. It’s time to cover the tender crops so they have a chance to get ripe.

Covering tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and smaller melon plants with floating row cover will help retain the sun’s heat during the day and the radiating ground heat at night. A floating row cover is a lightweight spun polyester fabric that is porous to light, water and air but can capture as much as 10 degrees of heat during the day and about 5 degrees at night. It can be draped over the plants and left in place the rest of the season as long as the days don’t get into the high 80-degree range. This will provide enough heat to speed up ripening but will reduce the potential for developing new fruits as the cloth won’t allow insect pollinators in. But it’s the end of the season, you want to get stuff ripe, not grow more.

The fabric can be wrapped around caged tomato plants and held in place with clothespins. This makes it easy to open and harvest a few ripe ones. Another way is to build a simple hoop frame out of PVC pipe to hold up the fabric. The frame can be made as long as needed to cover a planting. For melons, cucumbers and other vining crops that spread out, the cover can be laid right on top of the plants and anchored down.

An added benefit to leaving the cover in place is that it will also help protect the plants from that first frost that can sneak in unexpectedly.

If the row cover isn’t available at your favorite garden center, set large rocks, concrete blocks, dark timbers or garbage cans full of water among your plants. These act as heat sinks that absorb heat from the sun during the day and radiate it back to the plants at night. If you are using railroad ties, wrap them in plastic to keep the chemicals from leaching into the soil.

If you live in a windy spot, consider adding a windbreak of burlap or old bed sheets on the windward side of the plants. Don’t use plastic up close to the plants as it can trap too much heat and cook the plants if we do get a hot day.