vegetation that is allowed to naturally decompose isn’t realized by many ranchers and some range mangers. Mulch plays a critical role in soil-water relationships that is often overlooked. This, coupled with current drought conditions in the southwestern United States justifies a consideration of the importance of mulch on rangelands. Several early classic studies (reviewed in this article) reve...

0378-1127/$ see front matter Published by Elsevier http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2012.03.028 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 970 498 1250; fax E-mail address: [email protected] (C.C. Rhoades). Mechanical fuel reduction treatments have been implemented on millions of hectares of western North American forests. The redistribution of standing forest biomass to the soil surface by mulching t...

A new class of biocomposites based on oil palm empty fruit bunch fiber and poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), which is a biodegradable aliphatic aromatic co-polyester, were prepared using melt blending technique. The composites were prepared at various fiber contents of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 wt% and characterized. Chemical treatment of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) fiber was suc...

The production of landscape mulch is a major market for the recycling of yard trash and waste wood. When wood recovered from construction and demolition (C&D) debris is used as mulch, it sometimes contains chromated copper arsenate (CCA)-treated wood. The presence of CCA-treated wood may cause some potential environmental problems as a result of the chromium, copper, and arsenic present. Resear...

(Stem anatomy in the spiny american palm Bactris (Arecaceae-Bactridinae)). Bactris trunks are made entirely by long sustained primary growth so that mechanical properties develop progressively as the trunk matures. Anatomical features vary throughout the stem so that one small sample is a limited representation. This limits the use for stem histology with systematic purposes. We examined stem a...

Development of insecticide resistance in onion thrips, Thrips tabaci Lindeman (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), populations in onion (Allium spp.) fields and the incidence of the T. tabaci transmitted Iris yellow spot virus have stimulated interest in evaluating alternative management tactics. Effects of straw mulch applied in commercial onion fields in muck areas of western New York were assessed in ...

Crop residues or mulches affect soil temperature influencing plant growth and related processes in the soil. A hot/cold plate combination was used to quantify heat transfer through several common dry test mulch materials (rubber chips, pine straw, wheat straw) and identify and quantify heat transfer mechanisms with the goal of modeling apparent thermal conductivity of the mulch. Mulch material ...

Introduction ............................................................................................................................2 Organic Farming & the Tillage Dilemma .........................................................................3 Mulch Tillage .........................................................................................................................5 Ridge Ti...

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...