The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of cover crops on pest/beneficial dynamics and to test the potential of living mulch on enhancing biological control against insect pests. The research, carried out in the frame of the InterVeg (Core Organic II) project, involved four European countries: Germany, Slovenia, Denmark and Italy. Three crops were tested: cauliflower, leek and artichok...

Soil temperature controls plant growth and many related processes in the soil. A mulch or crop residue covering the soil may alter soil temperatures significantly. Available simulation models often lack experimental data for the mulch thermal conductivity and its dependence on air velocity. The apparent thermal conductivity (k) of wheat straw, pine straw, tire chips, dry sandy soil, and the the...

Mulching is used to improve the condition of agricultural soils by covering the soil with different materials, mainly black polyethylene (PE). However, problems derived from its use are how to remove it from the field and, in the case of it remaining in the soil, the possible effects on it. One possible solution is to use biodegradable plastic (BD) or paper (PP), as mulch, which could present a...

Sweet-scented geranium (Pelargonium graveolens L'Hér), a plant belonging to the Geraniaceae family, has medicinal and aromatic properties and is widely used in the cosmetic, soap, perfume, aromatherapy, and food industries. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of fertilization and the use of different colors of plastic mulch on sweet-scented geranium biomass and essential oil. Th...

A two year (2010-2012) study was conducted to assess the effects of different agronomic management practices on the emissions of CO2 from a field of non-irrigated wheat planted on China's Loess Plateau. Management practices included four tillage methods i.e. T1: (chisel plow tillage), T2: (zero-tillage), T3: (rotary tillage) and T4: (mold board plow tillage), 2 mulch levels i.e., M0 (no corn re...

Mulch applied to tropical soil may increase soil health both through stimulation of microbiota beneficial to plant nutrient uptake and the suppression of plant disease. To test this hypothesis, we compared beans in three cropping systems: (1) mulched with secondary vegetation (slash/mulch), (2) mulched with foliage from alleycropped nitrogen-fixing trees, Calliandra calothyrsus, Gliricidia sepi...

Multilayer routing is an important problem in the physical design of integrated circuits as technology evolves towards several layers of metallization. MulCh is a channel router accepting specification of an arbitrary number of routing layers. Though several other channel routers for three layers of interconnect have been proposed, the only previously reported practical implementation for an ar...

This paper reports on the thermal characterization, via the thermal conductivity, of natural materials, such as mulch and lava rock and their usefulness as building insulation. Experiments were carried out using a scale one monitored wall (i.e. heat flux and temperature sensors) exposed to a heating source on one side and to an air conditioned space on the other. The wall system was composed of...

A ®eld experiment was conducted during the dry season of 1993/1994 at the Irrigation Research Farm, Institute for Agricultural Research, Samaru, Nigeria to evaluate water management options on the performance of tomato. The trial involved three furrow irrigation methods (conventional furrow, conventional furrow with cutback, and alternate furrow), two mulch treatments (without mulch and straw m...

The recent boom in construction activities and the continued urban development in Kuwait have resulted in the generation of massive quantities of construction/demolition material by-products that need to be removed from construction/demolition sites in the cities to landfill areas which are limited in the country. This paper explores the possibility and benefits of utilizing by-product material...