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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Legacy Effects Of Biodegradable Mulch And Soil Amendments On Vegetable Crops And The Soil, Elise V.H. Reid
Legacy Effects Of Biodegradable Mulch And Soil Amendments On Vegetable Crops And The Soil, Elise V.H. Reid
Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Plastic film mulches are used in horticulture to manage weeds, improve water retention, and increase soil temperature. Bioplastics and biofabrics are potentially sustainable alternatives to plastic film; however, they have different rates of in soil degradation. Polylactic acid (PLA) is a 100% biobased polymer that degrades slowly, but could fulfill organic certification to be soil incorporated. Mater-Bi is a commercially available biodegradable plastic (bioplastic), which degrades quickly, but cannot be incorporated in organic systems. Our objectives were to determine the individual and combined effects of soil amendments and residual mulch on vegetable crop yield and soil fertility. In a two-year …
Microbial Response To Biodegradable Mulch: Can Degradation Rate Be Accelerated By Management?, M. Benjamin Samuelson
Microbial Response To Biodegradable Mulch: Can Degradation Rate Be Accelerated By Management?, M. Benjamin Samuelson
Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research
Single-use, petroleum-based polyethylene mulch is ubiquitous in certified organic mulched vegetable systems, representing a broken nutrient cycle and a waste concern. Current organic-allowable biodegradable mulches cannot match the performance of polyethylene, in part because of the requirements that they contain 100% bio-based feedstock, and biodegrade within two years after soil incorporation. It is valuable to understand whether management can influence postharvest degradation rate of mulch films. Two biodegradable mulches: a potentially organic nonwoven polylactic acid and wood particle prototype (PLA), and a widely-adopted non-organic starch/copolymer blend, Bio360® (BLK), were used in field trials in two distinct ecoregions of Nebraska, at …