Effect of Biodegradable Mulch Materials on Weed Control in Processing Tomatoes

Abstract

Three years of field trials have been carried out in Zaragoza, Spain, using different biodegradable mulch materials in processing tomatoes. The aim was to evaluate weed control with several biodegradable mulches as alternatives to black polyethylene (PE) mulch. The treatments were rice straw, barley straw, maize harvest residue, absinth wormwood plants, black biodegradable plastic, brown kraft paper, PE, herbicide, manual weeding, and unweeded control. Assessments focused on weeds and on crop yield. A laboratory study showed that 1 kg/m2of organic mulch was sufficient to cover the soil for rice, barley straw, and maize harvest residue. The most abundant weed species in the field were purple nutsedge, common purslane, common lambsquarters, and large crabgrass and a change in weed composition was observed between treatments and years. Most weed species were controlled by the mulching materials except that purple nutsedge was controlled only by paper mulch. The other species were well controlled by PE and biodegradable plastic and also by some of the organic mulch treatments. Best weed control and lowest weed biomass were achieved by paper followed by PE and biodegradable plastic. The best organic mulch was rice straw and the worst weed control was from absinth wormwood. Tomato yield was highest for PE followed by paper, manual weeding, biodegradable plastic, and rice straw and was clearly related to weed control. Paper, biodegradable plastic, and rice straw are potential substitutes for PE and herbicides.

Mulch materials in processing tomato: a multivariate approach

“…Weeds were tested in each treatment 63 days after transplanting. For these measurements, four 1 m × 0.2 m frames, 10 cm apart from the tomato row, were defined on each bed treatment (Anzalone et al, 2010). The number of weeds was counted, and the weed soil cover was measured by image processing of digital photographs of the mulch surface and then expressed as a percentage.…”

Nonchemical weeding of medicinal and aromatic plants

“…An alternative environmentally friendly technique, suggested for many row crops even under organic cropping conditions (Anzalone, et al 2010;Cirujeda et al 2012;Rasmussen et al 2011), is mulching. A few experiments on mulching have been conducted on medicinal and aromatic plants.…”

The influence of non-living mulch, mechanical and thermal treatments on weed population and yield of rainfed fresh-market tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

“…Polyethylene mulch remains practically intact and has to be removed at the end of the crop cycle because it is not biodegradable (Martin-Closas et al, 2008a,b;Anzalone et al, 2010). Biodegradable plastic mulch made out of starch has led to high tomato yields and degrades into nontoxic compounds (Cirujeda et al, 2012b;Miles et al, 2012).…”

“…Biodegradable plastic mulch made out of starch has led to high tomato yields and degrades into nontoxic compounds (Cirujeda et al, 2012b;Miles et al, 2012). The main disadvantage of biodegradable plastic mulch is the high cost (varying from €700 ha -1 to €900 ha -1 ) (Novamont, 2012) with respect to other mulching materials such as straw (Anzalone et al, 2010).…”

“…One of the most commonly used organic mulches is cereal straw, which is cheap as it is a by-product of plant production (Anzalone et al, 2010). Straw mulch decreases weed emergence and growth (Teasdale & Mohler, 2000;Petersen & Rover, 2005;Radics et al, 2006;Ramakrishna, et al, 2006;Anzalone et al, 2010) and similar or higher yields with straw mulch have been reported compared to plastic mulch and higher yields compared to bare soil (Díaz-Pérez et al, 2004;Radics et al, 2006;Anzalone et al, 2010).…”