Material
Commercially available row cover is usually a lightweight synthetic, such as clear plastic (polyethylene) or spunbonded polyester. It is placed directly above rows of crops on a supporting framework—often, on wire hoops to form a low tunnel—and usually left in place for several weeks until crops are well-established.
Floating row cover is extremely lightweight row cover fabric that can be placed directly over plants, without need for a supporting framework, instead being simply anchored to the ground against wind.
Another form of light weight row cover is made from High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and is a knitted fabric. It is strong and the manufacturer claims a life of 8 years. It is designed with a low shading effect (16%) and allows natural air flow and rain and water penetration. It also protects from light frosts, strong winds and hail. It is used on low tunnels. It comes in a variety of widths and lengths.
A protective tunnel formed with row cover is sometimes called a cloche. More often, a cloche, or bell jar, refers to a covering made of glass or plastic, placed over individual plants to provide similar protection as row cover.
Read more about this topic: Row Cover
Famous quotes containing the word material:
“He looked as if he wished to rive new war material out of the wombs of the mothers.”
—Anonymous. Quoted in Ellen Key, War, Peace and the Future, ch. 9 (1916)
“The possibility of interpretation lies in the identity of the observer with the observed. Each material thing has its celestial side; has its translation, through humanity, into the spiritual and necessary sphere, where it plays a part as indestructible as any other.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Living in cities is an art, and we need the vocabulary of art, of style, to describe the peculiar relationship between man and material that exists in the continual creative play of urban living. The city as we imagine it, then, soft city of illusion, myth, aspiration, and nightmare, is as real, maybe more real, than the hard city one can locate on maps in statistics, in monographs on urban sociology and demography and architecture.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)