Going with row covers - need help

Just returned home from a 10-day vacation and my garden is toast. I had friends watering, but I knew it was hopeless since before I left I discovered downy mildew on everything and squash vine borers ALL over my squashes! So, now I have decided I definitely need to go with row covers for next planting season. My question is, will tulle suffice to keep out the SVB moths and cabbage moths? Also, how do you anchor it down and still allow it to float as the plants grow? I read some threads on this forum but am still a bit unsure how to make them work. (My hubby is talking about using toxic chemicals to control the bugs but I'd really rather not....

oh man, sorry about your garden. I've never used the floating row covers, but here's a link that might help? http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-5455-agribon-ag-15-118-x-50.aspx
those darned pests are so annoying. I don't know how big time organic farmers do it?? Good luck.

I've used the light-weight against insects and the heavy against early frosts and they work. I highly recommend them.
You can put them over hoops or bent wire clothes hangers held in place with spring clothes pins or binder clips, too.

Here's row cover over pollinated strawberries so the birds can't get them before they are large enough to harvest. In the background row cover over cabbages and cauliflower saved these crops from the insects.

Row cover saved these cabbages from flea beetles.
Look for Agribon or Remar which are brand names.
edited to add: If the crops are strong enough, you don't need hoops to hold it up. The plants will do that themselves.

I actually just built a tulle cover over my SFG. I bought 4 schedule 40 PVC plumbing pipe 1/2in from homedepot ($1.73 ea) and 6 pipe fasteners 1/2in from that same aisle. It's $1.90 a pack of 10 or 12 and its galvanised to avoid rust. I just used drywall screws to attach the fasteners to the outside of my SFG and slide the PVC pipe in and bend to the other side. It just stays on. I tied the forth one on top horitzontally to provide some structural integerty and fasten with some string. I bought some tulle from Jo Ann fabric $2.99 per yard and I had a 40% off coupon so that worked out good. The tulle I found was 9 ft wide so 8 Yrds worked well. I wasn't sure if 9 ft wide was enough so I bought 15 yards in case I had to sew it together to enlarge the width. I held the tulle to the box with large binder clips I found at Office Depot I got 8 clips but could really use a few more and my plants are doing much better. I decided to build this cover becuz of all the kind advice I recieved on this forum regarding my pest concerns. Let me know if you want more info or is interested in seeing a picture.

Miko

I also used tulle, 108" or 9' wide. This is not wide enough to reach to the ground if you use a hoop that is 10'. So I cut my pvc hoops down to 8' and that was plenty tall for whatever. There was enough tulle left over on the sides to tuck it under a 1 x 2 down both sides to keep the bugs out.

Nymiko wrote:?....... Let me know if you want more info or is interested in seeing a picture.

Miko

Yes please on the pictures.

Thanks for all the great information everyone! In all my reading I discovered that the squash vine borers are probably in my soil now, so I may have to save the row covers on that bed for after the summer solarization. But I am going to make some covers for the other beds for sure. Is there a big difference between the Agribon and tulle? I don't need frost protection, really, being in Central Florida - mainly bugs.

Lookin' good. Eventually those binder clips will rust out in the rain but they'll do good for you for a couple of years.

quiltbea wrote:Lookin' good. Eventually those binder clips will rust out in the rain but they'll do good for you for a couple of years.

Thank you! A couple of years is actually a lot better than I would imagine for those binder clips. I just couldn't figure out what to use to clip it down.

You can just go on the inside of the box with them. Using the tension of the arc to hold them against the sides, you can then run a couple deck screws through them in to the wooden box. I do this but criss-cross them over the top. With them done this way they are unmoveable by any weather they encounter and there is no need to buy clips.

This will work fine. Just something to think about if you do it again or do more. I'll post a pic of mine if you want to see what I mean.

This will work fine. Just something to think about if you do it again or do more. I'll post a pic of mine if you want to see what I mean.

Yes, pictures please!