what fabric should i use to warm the soil and surpreess the weeds?

Hi can someone suggest what i should use for the above? i want to help the soil warm up quicker in spring and hopefully persaud all my crops to double in size.There seems to be too much choice i realise it has to let the rain in.Will normal weed surpressant material do or will it fray as i cut holes in it for the plants and start to rip.cheers slurp

I know that farmers use transparent polythene in the Spring to warm up the soil. Black polythene would just warm itself up, I think.

I leave it to nature. Saves a lot of work and cash.

That "polythene" that you see a lot of in the fields in spring is actually a starch sheeting. This breaks down during the growing season and in doing so provides nutrients.

Black is the best colour for a soil warming material.

You need something reasonably transparent. That way the light/heat from the sun gets through hits the ground and warms it. That the material acts as an insulator (blanket) and prevents all that has been absorbed escaping.

Black absorbs more, but that means you are warming the material. That would then radiate heat off and convect heat away, not a great deal would get to the ground by conduction. Then at night black is the best radiator so more of the hopefully stored heat gets lost.

Problem is that with light getting through and being warmer (hopefully) weeds will flourish. For that you need something opaque. Then they get no light and do not (hopefully) germinate.

Seems a lot of bother.

You need something reasonably transparent. That way the light/heat from the sun gets through hits the ground and warms it. That the material acts as an insulator (blanket) and prevents all that has been absorbed escaping.

Black absorbs more, but that means you are warming the material. That would then radiate heat off and convect heat away, not a great deal would get to the ground by conduction. Then at night black is the best radiator so more of the hopefully stored heat gets lost.

I see your train of thought but you are wrong  . As you correctly say black is best at absorbing  and emitting radiation (sun light) - other colours, particularly white and shiny surfaces will reflect more radiation, so that the material remains cooler. The idea is that the black material absorbs more light , it becomes heat and then 50% of it is emitted into the soil. Using a fully transparent material will just work as a greenhouse and encourage growth of all the weeds.