Red mulch

Red? no, blue! no, I guess red! Wondering just how tomatoes and strawberries were able to benefit from red mulch I had to research it and it seems that there have indeed been scientific trials and the results are in... not only do strawberries grow better..they also are more flavorful and aromatic!!!! ("20% larger, had higher sugar to organic acid ratios and emitted higher concentrations of favorable aroma compounds ") None of the colors were as good as black for weed suppression but PSU found that blue mulch did an even better job of increasing tomato yields. "The red mulch reflects wavelengths of light that cause the plant to keep more growth above ground...So reflection from the red mulch, in effect, tugs food away from the nematodes that are trying to draw nutrients from the roots," "The results are dramatic, Plants in trials inoculated with 200,000 nematode eggs and grown with black plastic mulch produced only 8 pounds of tomatoes, compared to 17 pounds for the plants grown over red mulch. "
Scientifically the conclusion....and the explanation on just why it works
..."it is concluded that strawberry and tomato yield and fruit size were responsive to morphogenic light (primarily the FR/R photon ratio) reflected from the SRM-Red mulch to developing parts of the sun-grown plants. The plants received incoming sunlight for photosynthesis, and the upwardly reflected morphogenic light apparently acted through phytochrome in the natural growth regulatory system within the plants to direct more photosynthate to developing fruit, which resulted in larger fruit and higher yield "
some other time, melons and green mulch...you heard it here first!