Plastic Laying Machine

By admin Monday August 10, 2009

This plastic laying machine goes on the back of a tractor and lays out a row of plastic. The plastic absorbs sunlight and heats the soil to get things started earlier. It also keeps down the weeds right around the plants, although it’s a real pain to weed adjacent to the plastic without cutting holes in the edges.

The machine shapes a bed with furrows on both sides and lays the plastic down on it. The packing wheels press the plastic down into the furrow. The wheels are angled slightly so the plastic is stretched tight across the bed. The covering disks then throw some soil on the plastic in the furrow, locking it down to the ground. A drip tape is also laid down about 2 inches below the surface under the plastic. Rain and overhead irrigation will diffuse in from the side of the plastic, but using the drip line is more efficient and requires much less water. This version does not have the fertilizer attachment which is available on other models.

The concrete block is there to hold the drip line in place while laying the plastic. The plastic and the drip line are under tension to keep them straight and tight, so if the drip line slips out from under the concrete block you could wind up without drip line under the plastic.

The plastic film costs a bit less than 4 cents a foot and the drip line costs a bit more than 2 cents a foot. It took me about 2 hours to lay 1500 ft of plastic. Most of that time is getting set up for a row, making adjustments, and covering the ends of the plastic.

The plastic laying machine doesn’t do anything to the ends of the plastic so the shovel is there to cover the ends. If you don’t cover the ends, the wind can get under it and rip it all out of the ground.

The rows can be laid down closer than shown here, but I like to have space between my tomatoes. It enables me to get a garden cart between the rows for transporting the picked tomatoes and it allows better air circulation to dry off the plants and reduce fungus problems on the plants.