Soil-biodegradable Mulches for Growth, Yield, and Quality of Sweet Corn in a Mediterranean-type Climate

Abstract

<jats:p>Plastic mulch is commonly used to produce many vegetable crops because of its potential to decrease days to harvest, control weeds, and improve soil moisture conservation. However, use of plastic mulch is relatively new for sweet corn (<jats:italic>Zea mays</jats:italic> L.) in North America. We compared five plastic soil-biodegradable mulches [BDMs; Bio360, Organix AG, Clear Organix AG, Naturecycle, and Experimental polylactic acid/polyhydroxyalkanoates (Metabolix, Inc., Cambridge, MA)] and a paper mulch (WeedGuardPlus) against standard black polyethylene (PE; nonbiodegradable) mulch and bare ground cultivation for growth, yield, and quality of sweet corn cultivar Xtra Tender 2171. This field experiment was carried out in Mount Vernon, WA, which has a Mediterranean-type climate with an average air temperature of 16.1 °C during the 2017 and 2018 growing seasons. The experiment was drip irrigated; and in both years, preemergence herbicides were applied to the entire experimental area 1 to 2 days after seeding, and post-emergence herbicides were applied to alleys. While most mulches remained intact until the end of the growing season, Clear Organix AG started to split shortly after laying, resulting in significant weed pressure by midseason in both 2017 and 2018. Plant height toward the end of the season was lowest for plants grown on bare ground, intermediate for Clear Organix AG and WeedGuardPlus, and highest for the black plastic BDM and PE mulch treatments both years, except for Bio360 in 2018 where plant height was intermediate. Days to 50% tasseling and 50% silking were delayed 9 and 13 days, respectively, for bare ground and WeedGuardPlus compared with all other treatments in both years. Marketable ear yield was highest with the black plastic BDMs and PE mulch and lowest with bare ground, WeedGuardPlus, and Clear Organix AG treatments in both years. Total soluble solid content of kernels, and length and diameter of ears grown on the plastic BDM and PE mulch treatments were equal to or greater than, but never lower than, bare ground and WeedGuardPlus. These results indicate that growth, yield, and quality of sweet corn grown with black plastic BDMs are comparable to PE mulch, making black plastic BDMs an effective alternative to black PE mulch for sweet corn production in a Mediterranean-type climate.</jats:p>

Effects of Film Mulching on Plant Growth and Nutrients in Artificial Soil: A Case Study on High Altitude Slopes

“…Such differences might be attributed to the higher plant uptake rate with higher yield under mulching. It has been found that sweet corn yields under mulch were 40-50% higher than those recorded in plots without mulch (2017 and 2018) [71]. It might also be because the mulch film prevents rainfall infiltration, thus mitigating and even preventing runoff and soil erosion.…”

Deterioration of Soil-biodegradable Mulch Films during Storage and Its Impact on Specialty Crop Production

“…5B). Concurrent with the stored mulch field trials described herein, we performed a larger field trial at both locations that employed new mulch rolls, which were obtained in 2017 (Ghimire et al, 2020;Moore and Wszelaki, 2019). The PSE ratings for BioAgri in the new mulch field studies (40% to 60% and 6% to 8% for Knoxville and Mount Vernon, respectively) were slightly lower than those observed in the stored mulch field trials (Ghimire et al, 2020;Moore and Wszelaki, 2019).…”

“…Concurrent with the stored mulch field trials described herein, we performed a larger field trial at both locations that employed new mulch rolls, which were obtained in 2017 (Ghimire et al, 2020;Moore and Wszelaki, 2019). The PSE ratings for BioAgri in the new mulch field studies (40% to 60% and 6% to 8% for Knoxville and Mount Vernon, respectively) were slightly lower than those observed in the stored mulch field trials (Ghimire et al, 2020;Moore and Wszelaki, 2019). It is noted that the test crops employed for the field studies differed between stored and new mulch trials in Mount Vernon (pie pumpkin and sweet corn, respectively) and between locations, although both the stored and new mulch trials employed bell peppers as the cropping system in Knoxville.…”

Regenerated Cellulose Products for Agricultural and Their Potential: A Review

“…The quest to find a suitable degradable material for mulching films has been widely discussed in the research field [ 170 , 171 , 172 ]. RC has been prominently studied for its unique properties, such as biodegradability and remarkable mechanical and thermal properties [ 173 , 174 ].…”