The Effects of Polyethylene Mulch and Sowing Date on Early Maturity, Growth and Yield of Okra

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effects of plastic bed mulch and sowing date on early maturity, growth and yield of Ahvazi-Okra and obtaining the highest production during the peak price period, an experiment was executed in Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center of Khuzestan. The experiment was laid out as split plot design in RCBD with four replications. Four sowing dates including Feb. 14, Feb. 24, Mar. 6, and Mar. 16 were considered as main plots and three different kinds of mulch including black plastic, clear plastic and control (without mulch) were considered as sub plots. The results showed that the effects of sowing date, kind of mulch, and their interactions on early maturity, early production, total production, germination period, and the number of days to harvest time were significant. The mulch application led to the acceleration of growth stages, and 2.64, 1.53, and 0.9 °C increases respectively in soil temperature at 10cm depth, soil surface temperature and crop canopy temperature, compared to the control treatment. Sowing date did not have significant effect on weeds population. Black plastic mulch could control weeds population effectively. The results demonstrated that the Feb. 14 sowing date together with using clear bed plastic mulch had the highest early production yield (1.9 t/ha), total yield (6.4 t/ha), and the longest crop growth cycle (135 days), the longest fruit production period (70 days) and the most number of harvestings (22 times) among the other ones.

Keywords

• Okra
• Plastic Mulch
• Sowing Date
• Weed
• Yield