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Is there any good reason why garden fleece is white?
Fire
Posts: 19,096
Does black hort. fleece exist? Or other colours? Black would be less conspicuous.
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I presume it's because white does not absorb light and therefore light levels essential for growth are maintained as much as possible in the are around it. Black absorbs light and the area beneath black fleece would have much lower light levels.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I bought it in green one year. Not sure about black though. Never seen it.
Just adding to the debate, I thought white reflects heat from the sun and black would absorb more heat - approximately by 40% more. Surely, when protecting plants it would be more benificial to use black fleece applying that theory Any heat level would be better for a protected plant particularly in extreme cold temperature.
Saying that, there must be a economical reason why fleece is normally only supplied in white
My feeling is that it's not heat from the sun that's important in frost protection ... it's the creation of a micro-climate using a barrier which retains the heat of the dark soil and prevents the flow of cold air to the plants under the fleece.
Light is really important otherwise the plants will become etiolated and weak.
Last edited: 03 December 2017 11:17:09
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Thank you for your thoughts. I was thinking of putting a layer of weed membrane over the white fleece, but will stick with just the white. My very overlooked garden looks somewhat full of bound and gagged kidnap victims, but so be it. x
I believe that hort fleece is spun polypropylene which is white when produced and would have to be dyed or treated to make it any other colour or clear.
Using black fleece would deprive plants of light, ( c.f. black plastic to kill off weeds ) and probably risk over heating plants if the sun came out strongly. Many plants we grow require a fairly uniform temperature range ( c.f. problems with non ventilated greenhouses over heating and stressing plants )
fleece was originally developed for professional growers and its going to be white for a reason.