Soil solarization is used to manage nematodes, pathogens and weeds, but relatively few studies have examined solarization effects on soil mineral nutrients, soil properties and plant tissue nutrients.

Home gardeners who place the same plants in the same location each year will ultimately experience fungal and bacterial disease buildup, as well as insects and other pest problems. Many have no choice ...

Solarization also eliminates some soil diseases, including Verticillium wilt, Phytophthora root rot, Fusarium wilt, damping-off, crown gall, tomato canker, and potato scab, allowing healthy plants and ...

After you remove the soil solarization plastic, plant a cover crop such as fava bean or leave the plastic on until spring. Or plant crops and use the plastic sheeting as mulch. Just cut small Xs in ...

Dear readers: Last week, I talked about my failure to raise healthy heirloom tomatoes in 2016. They were disease-riddled. Next year, I vow to do better. One of the ways to lower disease resident in ...

As some summer crops are beginning to wind down, now is the time to consider what's next. There is still plenty of time to get that second planting of squash, beans and even tomatoes in the ground. If ...

There is one benefit to summer's extraordinary heat . It can be put to use controlling soilborne pests in the vegetable garden. Through solarization, intense summer sunlight can control pathogenic ...

Note: This article was originally published in this newspaper in 2011. Is there an area in your garden where you are battling noxious weeds or other invasive plants? If so, soil solarization is a ...

Solarization of soil was found beneficial for plant growth in cowpea under field conditions. Root nodulation, infection by mycorrhizal fungi and yield were higher in plants grown in solarized soil.

In last week’s column, I discussed the effectiveness of soil solarization in killing weed seeds and underground root systems (Bermuda grass) and its ability to seriously reduce populations of ...

Soil solarization is most effective in the hottest summer months that are just ahead of us. Soil solarization uses the heat from the sun’s rays to essentially bake the soil to a temperature of up to ...