Use of conventional and innovative organic materials as alternatives to black plastic mulch to suppress weeds in tomato production

ABSTRACT Controversial issues have been raised regarding the use of plastic mulches, as they can have a destructive effect on agricultural production systems and because of the reliance on fossil fuels for the manufacturing. Investigating the use of organic materials as alternatives to black plastic mulch is thus crucial to enhance both the productivity and the sustainability of agricultural systems. A field experiment was carried out in three years, assessing the efficacy of several organic mulch materials, in comparison with black plastic mulch, for suppressing weeds in tomato production. The results showed that, mulching with shredded date leaves + sawdust, had the highest inhibiting impact in reducing the total weed density by approximately up to 31.3 weeds m-2 at 70 days after transplanting in all three years. The highest marketable yield of the tomatoes was obtained for plants grown with shredded date leaves + sawdust mulch in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Additionally, mulching with coco fibre, sawdust, wheat straw + sawdust, corn residue + sawdust and wood chips + sawdust resulted in similar values for marketable yield as the black plastic. The results revealed that shredded date leaves + sawdust could be a practical alternative to the use of black plastic in the production of processing tomatoes. The use of wheat straw + sawdust, barley straw + sawdust, rice straw + sawdust, corn residue + sawdust, coco fibre + sawdust, sawdust and especially coco fibre, as replacements for black plastic, would be rational options when there is no access to shredded date leaves + sawdust.