Create a sterile or stale seedbed using AcryliCloche®  UK Garden Cloches.

A sterile or stale seedbed simply means earth which contains little or no weed seeds near the surface. Use AcryliCloche Garden Cloches as a very effective and organic method of weed control for annual weeds. 

Gardeners have a love hate relationship with weeding. Some people find it therapeutic while others are on constant alert for the unwanted annual invaders. Regardless of what the gardener feels about weeding, weeds swamp and rob vital nutrients and light from the crops and plants we want to cultivate.

AcryliCloche® garden cloches warm the soil rapidly encouraging faster germination of weed seeds which you can then destroy before sowing or planting your desired vegetable crops or plants. The theory behind the technique is that only weed seeds within the first 5cm or so of soil will gain enough access to light to germinate. Anything deeper than that stays dormant until the soil is disturbed and the weed seed is bought closer to the surface. Early germination of the weed seeds are encouraged under cloches then destroyed leaving you with a sterile seed bed in which to sow.

Step One. Choose your plot and prepare the soil.

About two to four weeks before you want to sow your crop prepare your seedbed as you would for the final planting. Perennial weeds need to be dug out down to the roots and any deep digging or major soil disturbance needs to be done now. For this method to work it is important that once you have created the sterile bed the soil is not disturbed as that simply brings up weed seeds from deeper down. To encourage greater germination of weed seeds the soil surface must be fine and free of large lumps. This will encourage germination of the weed seeds within the first 5cm or so of soil. Remember that you want the weed seeds to grow and germinate so take care to ensure the soil is moist. Place your AcryliCloche® UK Garden Cloche over the area, with end pieces and check regularly for seed germination.

Step two. Search and destroy.

As soon as you see the weed seedling emerge remove them by either pulling them up or hoeing off. Take care not to disturb the soil. At this point you can choose to lightly rake over the soil surface again (5cm max) to expose more seed in the surface layer and replace your cloches to repeat the process.

Step three – Sow and plant.

You now have a sterile or stale seedbed. Avoid disturbing the soil at all costs. It is important when sowing or planting that deeper soil which still contains viable weed seeds is not bought to the surface. Sowing seed is fairly simple as the majority of seeds are not sown greater than 5cm deep. You can always surface sow and add sterile potting compost on top. Planting out plants usually involves digging a bit deeper. The method here is to carefully dig out the hole making sure the soil is placed elsewhere. (Remember soil from depths greater than 5cm will still contain viable weed seeds) Plant your plant then fill in with sterile potting compost.

Best for…

Creating a sterile or stale seedbed is particularly useful for crops or plants that are sown direct and grow closely together. It can be used for all vegetables and plants. Here are a few examples.

Carrot seeds are generally sown thinly in broad rows and it is very difficult to get in amongst these to do weeding, not to mention that disturbing this crop attracts carrot fly.

Cut and come again or looseleaf lettuce – grown closely together and cut when young it is very difficult to weed so the more you can reduce the chance of weed seeds germinating the better.

Spring Onions are another crop sown fairly closely together in broad rows. Trying to pick the weeds out from between the spring onion seedlings can be very time consuming.

Nursery beds. Where you sow seeds closely together in order to germinate before transplanting the seedlings to their final growing positions. Again as your crop is planted closely together it is difficult to weed between the plants.