Soil

4mm plastic sheeting – where to get in New Zealand

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The 2012 New Zealand Daffodil Annual has an article regarding soil solarisation which requires 4mm clear plastic sheeting.  Has anyone in NZ done this and where did they get the clear plastic of that thickness.  I’ve searched and searched and cannot find anything.  Thanks.  Noeline McLaren.  Balclutha

12 comments for “4mm plastic sheeting – where to get in New Zealand”

  2. From my experience, be sure get UV resistant sheeting – else you might have hundreds of small pieces after a month in the sun!

  4. It is good to see that some NDSNZ members read our Daffodil Annual!  The article Noeline referred to was wriiten by the late Daffodil Doyen Delia Bankhead,  It was reprinted with Loyce’s permission from the ADS Daffodil  Journal.    Delia was a very good friend of ours – we stayed for a few nights in her lovely home and viewed some lovely minis.

    Bob’s advive is worth taking note of although I doubt that the temps in the area Noeline lives would not reach those of California.

    I guess all of the visitors who came to New Zealand for the World Convention are home by now.  We hope that you all had a good time.  I can testify to the hundreds of hours of planning the tour, responding to requests, and dealing with problems that my wife Lesley put into it – all as a volunteer!  But she does love organising!!

    Cheers to everyone

     

    Peter

  5. Hi Peter and Noeline

    I read the article as well and yes I have to admit the temperatures here aren’t the same as California especially at the moment, the weather has been aweful since the convention weekend. Noeline can you let me know when you fine a supplier as I am keen to try this method out as well.

    Cheers

    Trevor

     

  7. You are so right Peter!  Yesterday was the first day in a fortnight it didn’t rain with blustery winds and we finally had a day taling the lambs.  We had sun this morning for the first time for the fortnight!  They had to stop tailing before 2.30 ’cause it’s now winter again.

    Cheers, Noeline

  8. Will do Trevor.  The makers of herd-homes etc seem to think this will be hard to find – they suggested tent manufacturers as the materials they use for ‘windows’ may be that thickness.

    Failing finding the exact material which was recommended in the article, we will come up with something with the traditional Kiwi ingenuity.  Donald’s drawn a blank as he can’t fashion it out of No. 8 wire!!!  But someone in NZ must have done this before – perhaps not daffodil growers though.

    Cheers

    Noeline

  9. There appears to be a miss-print in the article. Plastic sheeting is measured in microns, not millimetres. We have plastic sheeting that is 200 mn, (microns) it is used to cover large hot houses for various horticulture crops. 4 millimetre plastic sheeting would be rigid.

  11. Films in the US are specified not in mm or microns, but in thousandths of an inch.   The conversion is 25.4 microns per thousandth of an inch or 0.025 of a mil per millimeter.  A 4 mil film is 0.1 mm thick.   PP, Polypropylene, films will embrittle within about 90 days.  PE, Polyethylene Films will do so much more slowly or about a year without treatment.  UV stabilizers can be added to make the films more resistant to the Higher energy radiation.  Stabilized PP films can last 1-2 years and stabilized PE films 3-4 years.  Pigmented films also last longer due to simply absorbing the light in the rocks dispersed in the polymer.   White or black pigmented films roughly double their useful life.  If one is attempting to do light sterilization I would avoid the black and stick with clear or white.   One can also use a couple of layers of film to make up the thickness as well.

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