The use of organic matter such as animal manures, human waste, food wastes, yard wastes, sewage sludges and composts has long been recognized in agriculture as beneficial for plant growth and yield and the maintenance of soil fertility. The new approaches to the use of organic amendments in farming have proven to be effective means of improving soil structure, enhancing soil fertility and incre...

In order to determine whether shredded rubber mulches (RM) pose water quality risks when used in stormwater best management practices (BMPs) such as bioretention basins, batch leaching tests were conducted to identify and quantify constituents in leachates from RM such as metal ions, nutrients, total organic carbon (TOC), and aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) activity (determined by the chemicall...

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...

Application of biotic growth regulators (e.g. humic components) and appropriate mulches is recommended to improve turfgrass quality. However, limited research has investigated their effect on lawn establishment. To investigate the effect of humic acid and selected mulches on characteristics of Festuca arundinacea in its planting stage, a factorial experiment based on a completely rando...

Plastic UV reßective mulch (metalized mulch) and wheat straw mulch delayed colonizationbyBemisia argentifoliiBellows&Perring and the incidenceof aphid-borneviruses in zucchini squash. No insecticides were used in either mulch treatment. The mulches were compared with a preplant treatment of imidacloprid and an untreated, unmulched control. In 2000, yield ofmarketable fruit in the plastic and st...

A 2-year field study in Lexington, Ky., evaluated weed control efficacy and infl uence on yields of several organic mulches in two organically managed bell pepper (Capsicum annuum) production systems. Five weed control treatments [straw, compost, wood chips, undersown white dutch clover (Trifolium repens) “living mulch,” and the organically approved herbicide corn gluten] were applied to two pr...

Plastic mulch increased minimum temperature of soil, accelerated plant height,early growth, early yield, and bring satisfactory weed control without anyapplication of herbicides. This experiment was laid out on three-factorialRandomized Complete Block Design with three replications during 2008-2010 atthe National Rice Research Institute, Rasht, Iran using three kinds of mulches(Transparent and ...