ArticlePlants (Basel, Switzerland)2023
Biodegradable Mulching Film vs. Traditional Polyethylene: Effects on Yield and Quality of San Marzano Tomato Fruits.
Article in Plants (Basel, Switzerland), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effects of Mulch and Fertilization on the Quantity and Quality of Perennial Wall-Rocket (Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The effect of conservation agriculture technologies adoption on food production and security in Northern Malawi: evidence from Mzimba district.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Changes in Soil Microbial Communities Induced by Biodegradable and Polyethylene Mulch Residues Under Three Different Temperatures.Microbial ecology · 2024Article
- Composite Polymer Granules Based on Poly-ε-Caprolactone and Montmorillonite Prepared by Solution-Casting and Melt Extrusion.Polymers · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Mulching is a common practice for improving crop yield and obtaining an out-of-season production, but when made using plastic materials it can bring environmental problems due to the management and the disposal of films at the end of the cropping seasons. To increase the sustainability of this practice, recently, mulching films made with biodegradable organic materials have become more widely used. Our aim was to evaluate the effect of a biodegradable mulching film on yield and qualitative traits of the San Marzano tomato fruits over two years (2014 and 2015). Two different types of mulching were tested: (i) black biodegradable film (MB12) and (ii) black low-density polyethylene (LDPE) were compared to bare soil (BS). Both mulching films elicited a 25% increase in yield, mainly due to the significantly higher number of fruits per square meter, compared to BS. Both mulching films also elicited a 9.9% increase in total soluble solids and a 57% increase in carotenoid content, while firmness showed the highest value in BS fruits. MB12 determined the highest value of the Hunter color ratio a/b of tomato fruits, followed by LDPE, while the lowest value was recorded in BS fruits. Both mulching films elicited an increase of 9.6%, 26.0%, and 11.7% for flavonoids, polyphenols, and AsA, respectively. In 2014, the MB12 degradation started at 71 days after transplant (DAT); in 2015, at 104 DAT. Therefore, replacing polyethylene with biodegradable film would seem to be an agronomically efficient and environmentally sustainable practice.
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