WEED CONTROL IN TOMATO (Solanum lycopersicumMill.) BY NEW BIODEGRADABLE POLYPROPYLENE SHEETS AND OTHER SOIL MULCHING MATERIALS

Abstract

Field experiments were carried out to evaluate the effects of different soil mulch materials and herbicides on growth and yield of tomato and weed control at two locations in Jordan during the 2016 and 2017 growing seasons. Treatments included differentnew nonwoven biodegradable UV-treated polypropylene fabrics, paper, black plastic, animal manure, straw mulches, five soil-applied herbicides, and weed-free and weed-infested controls. On average, weed competition with tomato for the entire growing season reduced marketable fruit yield by 58.6% of the weed-free control. Animal manure, black/whitemulch/double face 45 g/m2(GSM) density (B/WMD45) and paper mulches resulted highest tomato growth and fruit yield at the University of Jordan Campus. Other polypropylene treatments gave similar yield to that of plastic mulchwhile all mulch treatments gave higher yield than herbicides. Of the herbicides, metribuzin and trifluralin treated plots produced the lowest fruit yield. Similar trends for tomato yield and weed growth were also obtained at the Jordan Valley Research Station except for black plastic that gave the highest fruit yield but not significantly different from that of B/WMD45, paper and weed-free control. Among herbicides, oxyfluorfen resulted highest yield but differences between herbicide treatments were not significant. The highest tomato growth and fruit yield were from paper, black plastic, B/WMD45, and animal manure treatments and the lowest for herbicides and weed-infested treatments. B/WMD45 may be considered as a suitable substitute for black plastic in tomato fields.