Call me a nerd… I’m ok with that. Here’s the Experiment -

I wanted to test the effect of weed pressure on vegetable growth but had no idea it would be this profound.

These zucchini, squash, cantaloupe, and watermelon plants were all planted on the same day, along the same irrigation lines in-between orchard trees.

Half of them were covered with weed barrier, half covered with compost and left to fight against the Bermuda grass.

Several weeks later and here we are. The ones covered in weed barrier are enormous and starting to produce. We finally broke down and covered the miserable looking failing ones with barrier just this week.