Mulching Tomatoes: how to mulch and when?

Among the various procedures about cultivating tomatoes, the mulching of the soil with biodegradable film plays a fundamental role for the yield and the quality of berries.

The mulching technique has various advantages on tomatoes:

• improving the water retention capability of the soil,
• avoiding the development of weeds,
• establishing the temperature of the soil with warmer surface layers to reduce the heat loss during the night,
• facilitating a fast rooting of the little transplanted plant or nurturing the sprout in case of sowing,
• allowing a better development and strength of the plants from the first vegetative phases and a higher number of flowers.

Besides, by creating temperature and humidity conditions more advantageous, it allows a higher mineralization of the organic matter resulting on the availability of nitrates and. By isolating the plant from the crop, the mulching reduces the onset of diseases caused by some fungal and bacterial pathogens.

We can therefore state that the mulching technique has the same effect of other inputs such as water or nitrogen fertilizers (if the plant receives more water or nitrogen, it grows faster with more flowers and berries).

The result is that the mulching crop has a higher production compared to the not treated one. In case of tomatoes, various studies register also an increasing in the refractive level.

Why mulch tomatoes? Here are all the benefits

An important benefit regards the efficiency of water’s use. Mulching films allow the reduction of water needs, thanks to the reduction of the water evaporation from the soil and the conservation of constant humidity conditions.

This effect is more obvious when the crop season is particularly dry and hot (like in the year 2022). The mulching allows to lightly extend the irrigation shifts in various crop cycles (of 1-2 days too).

Mulching films are effective also on pests’ control with the reduction/elimination of specific personnel in charge of weeding and a reduction of hoeing (this shall nevertheless be carried out).

We remind you that the application of mulching films must be always carried out with a mechanical control of pests which inevitably develop in the uncovered area between the two cloths.

Given the need to reduce plastic material waste in agriculture (partly coming from the mulching technique) there are always more companies choosing polymer plastics of herbal substances such as Mater- Bi®.

These materials are completely biodegradable with various advantages both for the environment and the production. They don’t need to be removed from the field to be disposed in specific collection centers. They are simply embended in the soil, also because its duration dissolves at the end of their life.

The technology in the production of these types of film has been improved through the years, these biodegradable films offer better resistance and duration compared to the conventional ones, obviously with the same thickness.

If this technique of mulching on industrial tomato is not yet well-developed in Italian areas is because of the problems related to the application of traditional plastic materials in the harvesting phase, specifically for what concerns the obstruction of the mechanical parts of the harvester. This problem can be overcome with the use of biodegradable mulching film, as already proved in others European countries where this technique is strongly consolidated.

To learn about all the other benefits of this practice in detail, please read the article dedicated to mulching technique: discover 7 advantages. To ensure that all these benefits are also obtained on your crops, Forigo Roter Italia has specialised in the design of mulching machines. These can be used individually or, alternatively, combined with machines that process the soil before spreading the cloth.

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