Newspaper Weed Control Without Newspaper
Weed Free Cantaloupes, Pumpkins, Melons, Cucumbers, Squash and More

If you grow vine crops like pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, cantaloupes (or cantaloupes for the spelling challenged), squash, etc. you know what a pain it is to try to keep the weeds down, especially after the vines have started fruiting?

Plastic mulch has been one of the few alternatives available for weed control but the plastic does not let rainfall get to the plants except through the stem holes and many small growers do not use drip under irrigation.  Plus, you have to take up the plastic and responsibly dispose of it.  This is a major expense for commercial growers.

Newspaper weed control has been used but does not work very well because newsprint lacks the strength and durability to hold up for a full annual growing season.  Plus it is messy, hard to lay and some insects are attracted to the sports pages.  The use of newspaper is not a viable option for larger scale or commercial growers.

Done properly, paper mulch is an excellent organic weed control for all of these crops, an excellent alternative to newspaper, an environmentally superior alternative to plastic, and we have started a test plot in the Neal Creek Farm garden to share our experience.  This could a viable option for commercial growers as well as home gardeners.  And, unlike plastic, at the end of the growing season you till it in - nothing to take up, nothing to throw away.

On July 22 we pulled up the harvested half of the sweet corn (we compost the stalks rather than till them in for pest control) and laid paper mulch over an area roughly 12 feet wide by 27 feet long.  See the photo below.  The paper mulch we have is 1 meter (3'3") wide so we overlapped the seams by about 6 inches and since we used up all of our pins on the berries we used some 2 x 4's and PVC pipe to protect the seams from being lifted by the winds from the next big thunderstorm.  Winds normally come from the west where we live so we lapped the mulch from east to west.

Photo update Week 2: The pumpkin seedlings are emerging from the mulch.
Note the couple of blades of grass, otherwise no weeds.

Photo update Week 2: You can see the pumpkin seedlings.  No weeds.  We have had
about 2 inches of rain in the past week including 9/10ths on Saturday night. The mulch
has had several good soakings.

Pumpkins are usually planted in hills in an 8 x 8 foot grid.  To take advantage of the mulch we decided to plant our hills in a row on about 3 foot centers.  When the vines sprout and begin to run we will spread them laterally to take advantage of the weed free area.  We have plenty of fertility in the soil to feed the plants planted this close together.

We laid the mulch over the grass and weeds (there are no protruding corn stalks) and planted the pumpkins in the well manured corn bed by cutting X slits in the paper and folding the corners under.  We may have a few weeds come up through the holes, but they will be easy to pull.

You can see from this photo that the corn second planting (top of photo) was planted in a bed about 6 feet wide, 5 rows to the bed seeded on about 4 inch centers.

Pam did the planting by walking on the mulch - note that unlike newspaper, the paper mulch did not rip or tear.  Once the seeds were all in we watered the holes and the surrounding mulch mat to settle the seeds in.  We then took a wheelbarrow load of chipped tree limbs from the compost pile and spread these around the holes to keep any wind from lifting the mulch.

Note that we put the right edge of the mulch right up against the fence.  There will be no need to get on the right side of the bed because we will have no weeds!!  When the pumpkins are ready we will walk over and pick them up.

Pumpkin seeds germinate in 7-10 days.  We will have more photos next Monday.

We are also using paper mulch on tomatoes and peppers in the garden.

To see what we are doing with paper mulch on cane fruits, check this link.