Mulching is an agricultural and horticultural technique in which the use of organic is involved. This technique is very useful in protecting the roots of the plants from heat, cold. Mulch is used to cover soil surface around the plants to create congenial condition for the growth. This may include temperature moderation, reduce salinity and weed control. It exerts decisive effects on earliness, yield and quality of the crop. Mulching is also applicable to most field crops. However, it is preferred in fruit orchard, flower and vegetable production, nurseries and forest where frequent cultivation is not required for raising the crops. Black plastic mulch is most commonly used in agriculture. Clear plastic mulch is used in some areas due to its increased soil warming characteristics. Research has shown that white or aluminum reflective mulch also repels aphids which spread some virus diseases in vine crops such as squash. So, mulching can be effective change in increasing horticultural crop production in water scarcity regions.

Effect of mulching on crop production under rainfed condition - a review

It has been demonstrated that the use of living mulches solves some of the environmental problems associated with the conventional cropping of maize (Zea mays L.). However, plant growth and yield are often reduced in such a cropping system. Since shoot competition between the main crop and the cover crop can be avoided by regular cutting of the cover crop, it was hypothesized that decreases in maize growth and yield in a living Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) mulch must be related to below ground interactions between the two species and that these may be traced back to the characteristics of their root systems. Two cropping systems, maize grown alone in bare soil (conventional cropping, BS) or together with a living Italian ryegrass mulch (LM), were studied in lysimeters (1.0 m2 surface area and 1.1 m depth) placed outdoors, near Zurich Switzerland, for a duration of three years. In the LM treatment a strip, 0.3 m wide, in the center of the plot around the maize row was free of grass. For comparison, an Italian ryegrass (RG) treatment, managed as the LM treatment but without maize plants, was also included in the study. Minirhizotrons (54 mm inner diameter) were horizontally installed at ten soil depths between 0.0 and 1.0 m, perpendicular to the orientation of the maize rows. The development of the maize shoot and the rooting patterns were observed non-destructively. LM strongly modified the maize crop by decreasing growth and duration of the leaf area, and thus biomass and grain yield at harvest by as much as 78 and 72%, respectively. Maximum root densities in the three treatments were observed around the time of maize anthesis. However, BS maize was unable to build up root densities similar to those observed in Italian ryegrass plots at the time of maize sowing. The root densities of the LM and the RG treatments were usually similar. The inability of the maize plants to establish a competitive root system in the LM limits the supply of nutrients and water and therefore reduces growth and yield. Improving the productivity of maize in living mulches will depend on the ability to achieve a better separation of the rooting volumes of the two species, so that specific steps to facilitate the main crop and control the living mulch can be taken.

Interactions of maize and Italian ryegrass in a living mulch system: (1) Shoot growth and rooting patterns

Different aspects of living mulches application in vegetable crops production is discussed in the paper. They compete with vegetables for light, moisture and nutrients and for this reason in most cases cause the yield reduction of cash crops. However, at the end of vegetation period, after ploughing down as green manure they enhance the organic matter content in the soil, improve its physical and chemical properties, which are benefi- cial for the subsequent species in crop rotation. Undersowing is best suited in perennial crops like rhubarb or the species with relatively long vegetation period, grown from trans- plants (leek, cabbage, sweet corn, stake tomato, pepper). The most important attributes required for species used as living mulches are quick emergence and soil covering, short height, low water and nutrients demands. In most cases the legume crops (white clover Trifolium repens L., red clover Trifolium pratense L., hairy vetch Vicia villosa Roth., se- radella Ornithopus sativus Brot.), grasses (perennial ryegrass Lolium perenne L.) or cere- als, especially rye Secale cereale L. are used for this purpose. Their competitiveness to the cash crops may be diminished by the delayed term of undersowing the only in strips between plant rows, mowing the biomass or the use of sublethal doses of herbicides. The beneficial effects of living mulches include the suppression of weed infestation, reduced insect pests and diseases pressure, and prevention from soil degradation. They suppress soil compaction, wind and water erosion, improve soil structure, reduce the surface water runoff and nutrients leaching. Living mulch cover is favourable for biological activity of the soil and the amounts of available nutrients after decomposition. Further intensive stud- ies will be needed to introduce such intercropping, friendly to the environment system to the wide practice, especially in the terms of possible decrease of competitiveness to the cash crops.

Living mulches in vegetable crops production: perspectives and limitations (a reviev)

Eggplant is grown in Poland mainly under shields because of high requirements in climat conditions. The utilization of mulches has played a great role in production of such vegetables. In 2008-2009 there was investigated the yielding of eggplant cv. Epic F1 cultivated with living mulches - perennial ryegrass and white clover, which were sown three weeks before eggplant planting, in the term of planting and three weeks after plant- ing, as well as with synthetic mulches: polyethylene black foil and non-woven polypro- pylene agrotextil. The experiment was established according to randomized split - plot method. Marketable yield of eggplant cultivated with the use of black foil was higher than that from the control treatment and mulched with black agrotextil cover by 7.8% and 10.4%, respectively. Eggplant yield obtained from cultivation with white clover was simi- lar to that coming from plots covered with black foil. Cultivation of this vegetable with perennial ryegrass resulted in significant decrease in eggplant yield, average by 17% in re- lation to cultivation with the remaining mulches and by 15% as compared to control treatments. The content of reducing sugars and magnesium in eggplants fruits depended on the type of mulch and term of living mulches sowing, and in the case of potassium on the species used as living mulch.

http://hortorumcultus.actapol.net/volume9/issue3/9_3_191.pdf

Yielding and nutritive value of field cultivated eggplant with the use of living and synthetic mulches

Abstract Living mulches are cover crops grown simultaneously with and in close proximity to cash crops. Advantages of living mulches over dead cover crops may include increased weed suppression, reduced erosion and leaching, better soil health, and greater resource-use efficiency. Advantages of living mulches over synthetic mulches may include enhanced agroecosystem biodiversity and suitability for a wider range of cropping systems. A major disadvantage of this practice is the potential for competition between living mulches and cash crops. The intensity and outcome of mulch-crop competition depend on agroecosystem management as well as climate and other factors. In this review, we consider the management of living mulches for weed control in field and vegetable cropping systems of temperate environments. More than 50 yr of research have demonstrated that mechanical or chemical suppression of a living mulch can limit mulch-crop competition without killing the mulch and thereby losing its benefits. Such tactics can also contribute to weed suppression. Mechanical and chemical regulation should be combined with cultural practices that give the main crop a competitive advantage over the living mulch, which, in turn, outcompetes the weeds. Promising approaches include crop and mulch cultivar selection; changes to planting time, density, and planting pattern; and changes to fertilization or irrigation regimes. A systems approach to living mulch management, including an increased emphasis on the interactions between management methods, may increase the benefits and lower the risks associated with this practice.

/pdf/integrated-management-of-living-mulches-for-weed-control-a-nl13sv82p2.pdf

Integrated management of living mulches for weed control: A review

health in terms of fertility and pest management. Organic production systems are ecologically and economically sustainable when practices designed to build soil organic matter, fertility, and structure also mitigate soil erosion and nutrient runoff. We found no research conducted under traditional organic farming conditions, comparing bareground monoculture systems to systems incorporating the use of living mulches. We will be focusing on living mulch studies conducted under conventional methodology that can be extrapolated to beneficial uses in an organic system. This article discusses how organic farmers can use living mulches to reduce erosion, runoff, and leaching and also demonstrate the potential of living mulch systems as comprehensive integrated pest management plans that allow for an overall reduction in pesticide applications. The pesticide reducing potential of the living mulch system is examined to gain insight on application within organic agriculture.

/pdf/living-mulches-for-organic-farming-systems-4f29e4wrzb.pdf

Living Mulches For Organic Farming Systems

/pdf/the-response-of-four-anthurium-anthurium-andraeanum-35w2xyfyqo.pdf

The Response of Four Anthurium (Anthurium andraeanum) Cultivars to Five Sequential Applications of Four Preemergence Herbicides

/pdf/eggplant-solanum-melongena-l-yield-comparisons-of-managed-25448fatnb.pdf

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) Yield Comparisons of Managed Buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare L.) Living Mulch Systems to a Conventional Monoculture Bare Ground System in Hawaii

Joe DeFrank

Papers

Living Mulches For Organic Farming Systems

The Response of Four Anthurium (Anthurium andraeanum) Cultivars to Five Sequential Applications of Four Preemergence Herbicides

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) Yield Comparisons of Managed Buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare L.) Living Mulch Systems to a Conventional Monoculture Bare Ground System in Hawaii