Information on mulching

Farm Questions
1

Found the below video on youtube on mulching good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcRWqGwUUO8&t=4s

A friend of mine gave mixed reaction about mulching. He said the lot of heat gets trapped near the plant which damages the plant. Is this true ?

Any experience of using plastic mulching from farmnest members will be very useful

Thanks,
Kiran

2

I have had good results with plastic mulch a few years back. Good saving of water, good weed control and better yields.

However getting rid of the mulch after its life is a huge hassle. Occasionally, rats and snakes find home under the mulch. We stopped plastic and use natural mulch as much as possible.

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3

Thanks @Chandra. Any idea what materials do you use for natural mulching ? Since I have coconut farm, getting dry coconut leaves is not a challenge for me.

4

shread the coconut tree wastes and spread on the ground.

5

Paddy straw, maize plant chaff, Janumu green manure crop plants… any organic matter should do the job.

6

Hi
I used plastic mulch for Tomato crop from May to September 2018. My observations are
(1) Created good condition inside the mulch (warm when its cold and cool when its hot outside)
(2) 80% weed controlled (some type of gross weed appeared through sheet)
(3) Lower side of the Tomato fruit touched sheet instead of soil, which greatly reduced damage of fruit.
(4) Soil became better porous compared to natural mulch
(5) Less water required, however watering must be done even during the rainy season, with reduced cycles.

Tomato cultivation done in 1.2 Acers ( 1 Acer with Plastic mulch and 0.2 Acer with natural mulch, mainly used janum and Jeeluga)

Thanx/ Thatha Rao

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