Black or White horticultural fleece?

I've only ever seen white fleece and never thought about why it that colour until I opened a pack of black weed control fabric bought from Poundland (5 x 1.5m for £1 seemed a good buy) and found it was only like black fleece and not at all suitable for stated purpose.



But then I thought why not use it as fleece instead as it's just the right size to go over the one I'm about to sow my carrots in. I can always swop to a white one once the ground has warmed up.

So any thoughts on black 'fleece'?

 

It depends on what you are doing with it, but I would have thought there was very little difference. Black could be a bit more expensive - all fleece starts as white. To get it black the manufacturer has to add black pigment at some point.

For weed control I would prefer black as you are less likely to notice it. As a fleece, they will both achieve the same end, which is to reduce air movement. Black will absorb a little more heat from the sun during the day, but black also radiates a little more heat at night.

I wouldn't worry.

 

Not from Poundland! I'll check but it may be even cheaper than their white stuff.

I'd forgoten about that, despite growing outdoor toms through black polythene dpm and getting them frosted with lower temps above that sheeting than anywhere else.

Also reminded me about using black/white polythene (for toms under cover) and using white side up.

 

Sounds a good idea Scrunge. Got to use a weed membrane to plant my french beans thru, on account of the stuff in the trench has got un rotted spud peelings in & I don't want them coming back up as I had blight last year.

Might as well paint it black.

 

I seem to have (previously) omitted my pic above showing just how thin/rubbishy that Poundland 'weed control' membrane is.

I've previously used several thick layers of wet (left out overwinter) newspapers/cardboard to cover that 'lovely stuff' in my bean trenches and then still put grass clippings on top to both tidy it up and keep it sufficiently moist/compact so the woodlice don't take over.

 

Got the scales out and did some calcs:





Proving that Poundland's so called 'weed control fabric' (see pic in post #1) is vastly inferior to the proper stuff, it's not only more lightweight but it's also over 60% more expensive than their own fleece.

 

Well done Scrungee - nice to see a bit of logic. Bargains are not always what they seem.

If you like calculations - try doing the same on the different plant feeds you see in shops. I did it for all the different varieties in just one shop. I added all the N, P and K together as if they were all equal and calculated the cost per kilogram of active ingredient. It ranged from just over £5 to £200 per kilo.