According to research, the use of Agrotex black mulching material has increased watermelon crops by 11 times.
The Russian Federation state committee for testing and protecting plant varieties performed a test of mulching materials in Krasnoyarsk, using several varieties including water melons, cucumbers, strawberries and black currant. As you may see, the list of varieties was rather long also including most popular ones.
According to agronomists, temperature fluctuations during the testing period exceeded the average statistics numbers, while the spring was dry and the summer was too rainy.
There were two water melon varieties planted on the testing grounds – Ogonyok and Fermer F. According to tests, Ogonyok crop with Agrotex 60 black mulching material used reached 182 hundred kilograms per hectare, while the site without nonwoven much yielded only 16 c/ha. Similarly, in terms of Fermer F, the results showed 186 c/ha vs 20 c/ha.
The use of the materials enabled decrease in anthracnose rate – the Agrotex-assisted plants were free from the disease, while the beds without any mulch showed involvement of 20% in terms of Ogonyok, and 30% in terms of Fermer F.
The fact that protection against weeds is the main quality of black mulching material was strengthened by Krasnoyarsk agronomists’ test showing 248 pieces per sq. m and 247 pcs./m2, correspondingly, at no-mulch sites, and no weeds at mulch-assisted sites.
With regard to cucumbers, the Agrotex-assisted crop exceeded the no-mulch crop by 1.7 times. Also, the mulched sites had no weeds, while the sites without any mulch showed 198 pcs./m2.
The agronomist received similar results with black currant. There were no or minor weeds under black currant shrubs protected by Agrotex mulch, while the unprotected sites showed 321 weeds/m2, 44 pig weeds/m2, 62 wheatgrass pcs./m2.
The use of black mulching material enabled a strawberry crop exceeding that of the no-mulch beds by 1.4 times.
These data facilitate a conclusion that the use of black Agrotex 60 enables
– a bigger crop;
– an earlier crop;
– less weeding time.
It should also be noted that the highest effectiveness of the material is reached when it is used in combination with Agrotex 42 and Agrotex 60 white covering material.
