The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Equipment => Topic started by: HesterF on January 27, 2014, 09:55:11 pm
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We need to get a lot of weed control fabric (mulch mat rolls) - about 3km in total. Any suggestions about the best place to get it from? Cheap!
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those kind of quantities you can probably go straight to a manufacturer and get it shipped on pallets...
what kind of quality are you after the thin cloth like stuff or the thicker stuff that goes under hardcore for paths etc.
what width have you assumed for your 3km requirement
as if you have areas to cover you can get wider sheets that are much easier to lay...
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3km?? wow
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Thin stuff to plant through. We're planting 2 acres of vineyard plus hedging to act as a windbreak. So 300m is for the hedging, then we're planting just under 2000 vines at a spacing of 1.5m so I'm reckoning that's just under 3km (yikes). The only rolls I've seen so far have been 1m wide but if I could find narrower that would be great. The rows will be 2m apart so with 1m fabric, we'd only have 1m of grass between them - which in turn means the tractor will be driving on the fabric. I've only sourced it by the tens of metres before to put around the fruit trees so this is a whole different enterprise....
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http://www.scotplantsdirect.co.uk/weed-fabric-matting-membrane-ground-cover/prod_66.html (http://www.scotplantsdirect.co.uk/weed-fabric-matting-membrane-ground-cover/prod_66.html)
start here 100m x 1m roll's 30 quid,
phone and see if they'll do a deal for a bulk order...
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The stuff used in construction under paths is called geotextile....the most common brand is Terram ,,,it comes in wide rolls which you can quite easily cut into widths you require with a handsaw whilst it is still in the rolls.
Not sure how it would stack up against garden centre stuff ,I suspect it will be the same stuff, it does come in different grades. Worth a google ?
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Does the under path stuff allow water through? We need it to be porous for the sake of the vines (obviously!). Good thinking about the handsaw. I wonder whether I could do that with the lighter fabric too - the rolls are normally pretty tight.
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I bought mine off eBay, 1.5x100m and I cut it in half. Was about £25 a roll including pegs
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Yes to letting water through
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I recently purchased 100m of this stuff http://www.hy-tex.co.uk/index.php/products/biodegradables/ecotex-mulchmat (http://www.hy-tex.co.uk/index.php/products/biodegradables/ecotex-mulchmat) direct from the manufacturer. I used it for planting hedging. I wanted something that would biodegrade after about 3 years once the hedge was established. It was much nicer than the plastic stuff to plant through.
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I think that's similar to what I used for my first batch of tree planting although mine had recycled fibre in it. It's pretty much trashed now though (after a year) and I've just mulched over the top of most of them with manure and put a non-biodegradable mulch mat over the top of that. It wasn't entirely the mats' fault - the poultry loved to pull at the fibres and the mower trimmed the edges of most - so maybe I should think about it again but I seem to remember it was more expensive? I can't see the price on the link?
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All the other brands of biodegradable ones I researched broke down after 12 months max. The reason I went for that one is that it last 3-5 years. If you phone them and tell them how much you are after they will give you a price.
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Thanks all. I've just mailed the Scots plant link to see if they can do a good deal on the fabric plus spiral tree guards and canes. The advantage is I can get them all from the same place and I worry a bit about eBay suppliers for something so critical sometimes (to be fair I've never had a problem but this is such a big quantity, I'd be sourcing from lots of different places). They're good on price too - if I can cut the 150cm roll into two rolls of 75cm, it works out as £16.50 per 100m for the lightest weight or £22.50 for the 70gsm (which I might go for - may withstand our mowing slightly better). Even better if I can get a discount.
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If you're still looking for a supplier, try:
http://www.allplas.co.uk/acatalog/Weed_Control_Fabric.html (http://www.allplas.co.uk/acatalog/Weed_Control_Fabric.html)
they do all sorts of plastic, netting, rope etc.
Sue
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Thanks! Scotsplants gave me 10% off for the bulk order so I got the heavier weight for just over £20 per hundred metres. So I've ordered it plus the canes and tree guards. Onto the next challenge - subsoil slicing ;D