Plasticulture studies were continued on bell pepper. Total marketable fruit yields of 4.85, 3.94 and 3.09 tons per acre were obtained from plants grown on silver, white, and black plastic mulches, respectively. Number of fruits produced per plant followed the same trend. Individual fruit weights of 85-117g were not significantly different among treatments. Fruit set as indicated by number of fr...

Vegetable production is heavily dependent upon high off-farm inputs of polyethylene (plastic) mulch, nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides. Such a production practice potentially contributes to the unintentional environmental pollution with fertilizer and pesticides as well as water run off and soil erosion. This raises serious environmental concerns for human and animal health. The integration of...

BACKGROUND: Application of plant mulches plays a significant role in development and expansion of sustainable farming systems. OBJECTIVES: Assessment effect of chemical and non-chemical weeds management methods on weeds density and biomass and the properties of soil, including microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and soil organic carbon (SOC) in potato cultivation. ...

peppermint (mentha piperita l.) from lamiaceae family is one of the most important medicinal plants, used in food, sanitary and cosmetic industries. a field experiment was carried out in ferdowsi university of mashhad in 2010-2011 to evaluate the effects of three irrigation levels (100, 80 and 60 percent of water requirements calculated by evaporation pan class a) and two mulch types (black pla...

Agricultural plastics area significant contributor to solid waste disposal problems, particularly in areas with heavy use of plastic-covered greenhouses or mulch films. Fieldburning and landfilling are no longer viable options for disposal in many areas. Reuse and reduced weight of films are two methods to reduce the amount of material requiring disposal. Recycling, incineration, and on-site de...

Estimation of field crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and its partitioning into evaporation and transpiration, are of great importance in hydrological modeling and agricultural water management. In this study, we used a dual crop coefficient model SIMDualKc to estimate the actual crop evapotranspiration (ETc act) and the basal crop coefficients over a cotton field in Northwestern China. A two-year ...