What We're Working On» August 2025

For some Illinois farmers, plasticulture is becoming the secret to a successful planting season.

“The biggest thing for us is warming up the soil and preventing weeds and that influenced us to go that direction,” said Carl Smits, owner of Smits Farm, during the Cook County Nutrient Stewardship Field Day hosted there Aug. 14.

Plasticulture refers to the use of plastic materials in agricultural production, including plastic mulch, landscape fabric, row covers, high tunnels and greenhouses. These tools can help increase yields and control weeds. Smits implements the practice on his family’s vegetable, herb and flower farm in Chicago Heights.

One of the key problems Smits was facing on his farm was weed pressure, as he was growing a crop using limited herbicides. He figured he could hand weed everything or prevent the weeds all together, and that’s how he started using plastic.

To grow mums, Smits uses black woven landscape fabric, which blocks weeds and can be reused over time, minimizing environmental impact. In contrast, plastic mulch is single-use.

“I have to admit it, that’s somewhat troubling to me. I want to be a good environmental steward, but I also need to be a good environmental steward to grow crops without any weeds. It’s a juggling dance,” he said.

Smits joined a panel with Alexis Barnes of University of Illinois Extension, Michael Barbic of Barbic Farms and Michael Howard of Eden Place Farms to answer other key questions about plasticulture.

Q: How did you get involved with plasticulture?

A: Barbic, who uses plastic mulch and black woven plastic landscape fabric, said plasticulture helps him manage his small scale, family owned and operated organic farm, where labor is limited.

“Weed pressure is terrible this time of year, and that (plasticulture) really saved me,” Barbic said.

To reduce labor and prevent water loss as he was transitioning to a no-till system, Howard chose to adopt plastic mulch in combination with a walk-behind tractor (BCS machine) and drip irrigation. As the largest land owners in their community of Phillip Park in Chicago, the plastic mulch has been useful for Howard and his wife’s “plan of attack” when managing their plant beds.

Barnes encountered plastic mulch while she was in grad school when she was trying to see if clover could replace plastic mulch as a “living mulch.” However, the experiment was unsuccessful as the weed pressure was too strong.

“I did have to use plastic in some of my plots to reduce a lot of those weeds, and it was a big labor saver,” she said.

Q: Are there particular crops that seem to work best with plasticulture?

A: Howard prefers using landscape fabric for salad greens, which is often laid over planting beds and can be reused across seasons. Plastic mulch worked well for peppers and tomatoes, but because it’s single-use, he has to replace it each season when rotating plots.

Onions are difficult to keep weed-free in the plastic, Barbic said. However, landscape fabric works great for crops like peppers and lettuce that stay in the ground longer. He tried plastic mulch for strawberries but was concerned about maintaining soil moisture.

“I would make the argument that everything that we grow, or everything that can be grown, will grow better on plastic,” Smits said. “Now that being said, if we’re talking about sustainability financially, it doesn’t always pay to put everything on plastic mulch … It’s not permanent, so you have to factor that into your equation of are things worth it to grow in plastic mulch.”

Barnes agreed most crops benefit from black plastic mulch, but sprawling crops like pumpkins, squash and melons may not need it. These crops suppress weeds naturally as they grow, and removing plastic mulch at the end of the season can be labor intensive.

Q: Is plasticulture cost-effective long term?

A: “The easy answer is yes,” Smits said, highlighting that with drip irrigation under plastic, he can water 4 acres efficiently with a small pump, saving on water and equipment costs.

Barbic said plasticulture is cost-effective, noting that the tarp he purchased in his first year was still in use four years later. Howard echoed that plastic mulch and drip irrigation continue to reduce labor and water costs, which is especially important given the high cost of water in Chicago.

“Black woven landscape fabric is quite expensive … and we had a lot of labor with that,” Barnes said, emphasizing that while the product may be cost-effective in the long run, it can be expensive starting out. “But the one thing that’s great about the black woven landscape fabric is that you can use that year after year.”