Mulching Guide – Improve your crop yield

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About the author View All Posts amar sawant Amar Sawant is an entrepreneur, farmer, and writer. He works more than ten
years as agri-entrepreneur. Always busy in farm to find something new.
June 28, 2018

Mulching means it is a process of covering the soil and make more favorable conditions
for plant growth, development.

Mulching is forming the protective layer around the plant. The practice of applying mulch is
a very old and effective technique.

It is beneficial for plant health, while it is creating a microclimate around the plant root
zone.

Table of Contents

Advantages of mulching
Type of mulching
Organic mulching
Straw Mulch
Grass Clipping Mulch
Inorganic mulching
Plastic Mulch
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 Clear plastic mulch
Black Mulch
Yellow- Brown Mulch
silver- black Mulch
White – black Mulch
How to select good mulching
Thickness
Test mulching film
Buy quality material form renewable source
list of crop showing high yield after using plastic mulch
How to install mulching
conclusion

Advantages of mulching
water conversion and weed control are the main benefits of mulch along with many
other advantages in agriculture this are as follows

1. Water conversion –
It prevents the direct evaporation of soil water hence crop required less water.
2. Weed control –
This is the most important motive behind many farmers using mulching techniques.
It helps to suppress weed growth.
3. Soil moisture –
Helps to prevent water in the soil from evaporating and maintain soil moisture for a
long time also preserve the constant humidity level in the plant root zone.
4. Root development-
It creates microclimate near the root zone; it is helpful for white root development of
the plant on the upper surface of the soil.
5. Substrate for plants, flower, and fruit –
It The mulching films prevent direct contact between soil and flower, fruit, other plant
parts, so it helps improve flower, fruit quality.
6. Pest control –
The mulching film reflects light, so pests like aphids and thrips, leafminer so easy to
control. It is also very effective against nematode. While- Yellow mulching films
attract whitefly help to control whitefly growth.
7. Heat and cold insulator –
Mulching film act as heat and cold insulator in winter mulch help to prevent soil from
rapidly freezing, while in summer it helpful for controlling soil temperature.
8. Soil erosion –
Mulching becomes a barrier between soil and raindrop and slows down the soil
erosion process.
9. Salinity level –
It is observed that there less salinity level around the dripper where mulch-film used.

Type of mulching
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Generally, mulching has two main type organic mulching and inorganic mulching both
mulch having own advantage.

Organic mulching
An organic mulch is made up of natural materials such as paddy straw, wheat straw, bark,
dry grasses, wood chips, dry leaves, pine needles, sawdust, grass clipping, etc.

But this organic mulch material gets decompose easily and need frequent replacement
also they attract insects, slugs, and cutworms.

Straw Mulch

Image source –www.todayshomeowner.com

This is the most common material used organic mulch. Paddy and wheat straw is the most
common mulching materials used for vegetable crop and fruit crop.

Among organic mulching materials, straw has a long life in comparison to other mulches
like grasses, leaves, sawdust.

Paddy straw and wheat straw after decomposition makes the soil more fertile.

Grass Clipping Mulch

This is one of the most easily available material. Green grass or dry grass used for grass
clipping. After decompose grass provides nitrogen to the soil. In rainy season green
grass development of its root system, so my suggestion uses dry grass for mulching.

Limitation of Organic Mulching

1. organic mulch sometimes makes an adverse effect in the poorly drained soil it
makes the soil too moist hence oxygen level near the root zone decreases.
2. Many organic types of mulches provide shelter for insect snails and mice.
3. Grass and straw mulch contain seed so they may become weeds.

Inorganic mulching
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In the Inorganic mulching material like plastic films, geotextiles, Gravel, and pebbles can be
used as inorganic mulch.

Inorganic mulches are extensively used in commercial agriculture. Plastic mulch is

the most common material used among all inorganic mulches. It does not decompose
easily.

Plastic Mulch
Plastic mulch made up of polyethylene material the approach use plastic in agriculture is
called plasticulture.

In plastic mulching, there are various type plastic mulching available they use according to
crop and need.

Clear plastic mulch

This type of mulch allows soil warm. This mulch mostly used in the cooler area, if you to
take the crop little early then use this clear mulch this mulch useful for strawberry
cultivation in the winter season.

Black Mulch

Image source – www.indiamart.com

As the name suggests in black mulch both side of this is black in colour. This mulch
doesn’t transfer any kind of light. It helps in conserving moisture, controlling the weed.

Yellow- Brown Mulch

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In this type brown side is touching the soil and yellow is facing upward. It is used in the
area where you have a lot of infestation of whitefly. Yellow colour attracts whitefly so when
whitefly come into contact with mulch due to sun heat they killed.

silver- black Mulch

Silver- black very popular most popular in the farmer. This mulch suitable for almost every
crop. This mulch reflects 27% off the light back to the fruits and plant; it helps in the better

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colour development. It is observed that in Pomegranate and strawberry fruits are more
premontane in colour.

White – black Mulch

This is my favourite is mulch because after serval experiment we found that white mulch is
showing more healthy plant as compared to black and silver mulch.

White- black mulch transferred more than 60% of the photoactive radiation back to the plant
hence enhancing the plant growth, and the plant becomes thickest and stronger leave with
lesser insect and pest attack and disease.

Therefore, you get higher production. In summer it performs better.

How to select good mulching

Selecting the right mulch martial is an important decision for the farmer. To get maximum
benefits from mulching right mulch film must be select

Thickness
For vegetable crop, film thickness ranges from 15 microns to 30 Micron while for orchids
crop film thickness ranges for 100 microns to 150 microns

Depend Upon crop type select a proper thickness. For vegetable crop choose 30 microns if
you are using over one year. In a case for small duration crop use 25 microns.

For Orchard crop where longer durability is needed if the soil contains so much stone then
select 150-micron film otherwise select 100-micron film.

Test mulching film

Take a small piece plastic mulching paper check it against the sunlight if it is transferring
the light don’t ever use.

Buy quality material form renewable source

A good mulching paper possesses long durability, airproof and Thermal proof ( they don’t
pass any light or very less amount light ) characteristic. In India, only few mulching
manufacture companies are following this parameter So buy mulching film from the
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renowned source.

list of crop showing high yield after using plastic mulch

Vegetable crop Orchard crop

Cabbage Pomegranate

Cauliflower Lemon

Capsicum orange

Tomato Banana

Brinjal Peach

Chilli Guava

Bhendi Papaya

Potato Apricot

Grapes

How to install mulching

In vegetable, crop mulching should be done at the time of bed preparation, but in Orchard
crops, it should be done just after plantation.

Mark the rows in the field before installation of mulch film.

Prepare the primary bed.
Apply Farm Yard Manure and a basal dose of 100 kg DAP and 10:26:26+ MgSO4 @
50kg per acre. Mix the FYM thoroughly in soil with the help of rotavator.

Prepare the final beds with top width 75-90 cm for two-row crops like Capsicum,
Cauliflower, Cabbage and for single row make top width 45-60 cm for crops like
Tomato, Brinjal, Chilli, Cucumber.

Before installation, make sure that the bed is flat and remove the previous plant
materials like big stone, branches, stem, etc. which can damage the mulch.
Put drip lateral on the bed and check they working or not.

Install the mulch film by stretching evenly on the beds either manually or
mechanically such that the mulch settles well on the bed.

Cover the corners of the mulch film (up to 20 cm from both mulches ends) along the
bed length in soil (Tip – the darker side of mulch always facing toward soil)
make a hole with the help of hot pipe or stainless Steel glass.

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conclusion
Use mulch for boosting crop yields and productivity.
Use only quality martial and according to crop need. If you have any quires, suggestion,
please comment.

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