To decree evapotranspiration from soil surface and improving irrigation efficiency and reduce water usage in cotton cultivation, plastic mulch was applied in furrow irrigation. This study was performed as a split plot experiment in capability randomized complete block design, in 3 replications. The experiment was located in Khorasan Razavi-Kashmar-Kashmar agricultural research station and was applied in 2 years, 2004-2005. The treatments were consist of irrigation period at three levels, 6, 9 and 12 days as main plot and plastic mulch at three levels I-black plastic mulch, II- white plastic mulch and III- control (without plastic mulch) as a subplot on furrow irrigation. Each treatment was irrigated up to field capacity. The results showed that application of plastic mulch used better water usage and black plastic mulch was more effective. Meanwhile The results showed that the use of plastic mulch had significant effect on reducing of weed growth, plant height increasing, yield and water use efficiency in respect with control.

Mulches bring several benefits to lettuce cultivation.A study on the lettuce ‘Red Rapids’ has been conducted to determine the influence of the different colored plastic mulch on its growth. The experiment consisted of five color treatments as follows; treatment 1- metallic silver (control), treatment 2- red, treatment 3- orange, treatment 4- yellow and treatment 5-green. Results showed that the colored mulch treatments had significant influenced on the different parameters including: root length at harvest, average leaf length, leaf diameter, plant height, plant weight, number of leaves at harvest and percentage survival. Lettuce grown in red mulch had significantly outperformed the other colored treatments.

Surface irrigation systems have been widely used in in arid and semi-arid regions of the world, but inappropriate design and management has led to high water losses and reduced water productivity. The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of plastic mulch placements in furrow irrigation on soil water distribution and water productivity under fodder corn production. Field experiments were carried out in Karaj in 2018. Four different treatments were considered in terms of plastic mulch placements including mulch on the ridge (R), mulch on the furrow bed (F), mulch on the ridges and the furrow bed (FR), and a treatment without mulch or control treatment (C). In order to measure water content, soil samples were taken one day before and three days after each specific irrigation event with 5 days intervals from four points (at 0-25 cm and 25-50 cm under the ridges and furrows) for all treatments. The mean values of volumetric water content during the growing season for the FR, F, R and C treatments were 24. 8, 23. 8, 18. 0 and 17. 1 percent, respectively. The results indicated that plastic mulch had substantial impact on retaining the soil moisture by reducing evaporation from the soil surface and the treatments with plastic mulch on the bed of the furrow (FR, F) had the highest soil moisture in comparison to the other treatments. Water productivity for dry matter of the FR, F, R and C treatments was 4. 5, 4. 4, 3. 6, and 3. 0 kg/m3, and for fresh matter of the FR, F, R and C treatments was 7. 6, 7. 4, 5. 7, and 4. 7 kg/m3, respectively. Based on the results, using plastic mulch on the furrow bed is recommended in order to reduce water loss and increase water productivity in furrow irrigation. Considering the effect of plastic mulch in maintaining soil water content, it is also recommended to utilize this method with the deficit irrigation method. Economic aspects should be taken into consideration in the future research on this topic.

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of plastic mulch on the growth and some physiological characteristics of two strawberry cultivars (Paros and Queen elisa) under drought stress. A factorial experiment was performed based on randomized complete block design with four treatments, including mulch, without mulch, normal irrigation (control) and deficit irrigation (-10 bar) with three replications. Some vegetative and physiological parameters in first year and yield of second year were measured. Results showed that leaf relative water content and stomatal conductance reduced by drought stress in both cultivars. Using of mulch increased leaf relative water content, cell membrane stability index and stomatal conductance in both cultivars compared with drought stress conditions. Drought stress reduced cell membrane stability index in Queen Eliza. However, Parus had higher cell membrane stability index than Queen elisa under drought conditions. Proline and total soluble carbohydrates significantly increased in both cultivars under drought stress compared to control. The amount of total soluble carbohydrates increased in Parus under drought conditions even with using mulch. Root to shoot dry weight ratio was increased under drought stress. Reduction of total dry matter was obtained by decline in leaf and petiole dry matter. However, application of mulch had significant effect on increasing of root dry weight, volume and length under drought stress. Yield of next year increased by mulch application under drought stress compared to non-mulch application. Results showed that using plastic mulch improved growth characteristics of strawberry under drought stress and helped to lower reduction of next year yield.

Plastic mulches play an important role in reducing water consumption. An experiment was conducted at Research Greenhouse, Razi University, Iran. The experiment was a completely randomized design with three treatments and three replications. Plants used for testing were barley and oat. Treatments included control (without plastic mulch), transparent plastic mulch with half coverage and plastic mulch with almost full coverage. This study aimed at determining the percentage of the plastic cover that had the highest dry matter production and water use efficiency. Results showed that treatment of plastic mulch with almost full coverage had the lowest water consumption and the treatment without the plastic mulch had the highest water consumption. The treatment of barley with full coverage had a water-saving of almost 40 percent compared to control. Water use efficiencies for both plants treated with almost full coverage were highest among treatments. There was no significant difference between plastic mulch treatments in terms of leaf relative water content, fresh and dry weight of stem, fresh and dry weight of leaves, plant height, and leaf area in oat and barley. In this way, by applying a coating on the soil surface and preventing the loss of soil moisture, water consumption can be significantly reduced, while the dry matter produced is not reduced.

Plastic debris remaining in the field after harvest is one of the difficulties in farming using plastic mulch. In this study, the performance parameters of a domestic plastic remover machine in collecting plastic mulches were evaluated. The dependent factors were fuel consumption, plastic tearing frequency during collecting and the total collecting time. The independent factors included film thickness 20 and 30 μ m), forward speed (2. 7, 3. 8 and 5. 4 km/h) and the time interval between harvesting and plastic collection (5 and 10 days). The tests were performed in triplicate using a factorial experimental design. Experiments were carried out in selected farms of Fars province by using a two-wheel drive MF399 tractor. The results showed that using thick plastic (30 μ m) reduces the plastic tearing frequency and hence with a lower number of stops, reduces the fuel consumption and increases the efficiency of the machine during plastic collection. To increase the efficiency of plastic collection, when using 30 μ m plastic, the forward speed of 5. 4 km/h is recommended. The best plastic collection time with the minimum tearing frequency recommended are 5 and 10 days after harvesting for 20 and 30 μ m thickness plastics, respectively. According to the results the least fuel consumption was observed for collection of 30 μ m plastic and with forward speed of 5. 4 km/h. According to results obtained the simultaneous collection of drip irrigation tapes and plastic mulch reduces costs and increases the efficiency of the plastic mulch remover.

Drought is the most important abiotic stress in Iran, which leads to a significant decrease in plant yield. Crops need a lot of water. ‎Evaporation and transpiration determines the plant's water requirement. Water is one of the rare resources in Iran, which is affected ‎by the amount of rainfall. In Iran, the cultivation of maize has been greatly promoted in recent years, and its use in livestock and ‎poultry feeding and industrial uses has been noticed. Sunflower, as the main source of vegetable oil in the world, is of special ‎importance, which requires a lot of water. Plastic mulch is especially important in reducing water consumption in arid and semi-‎arid areas.‎An experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Research Farm, Agricultural ‎and Natural Resources Campus, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran in 2016. The plants used in this experiment were maize and ‎sunflower. Treatments included plastic mulch between the rows, plastic coating on the plant (only in maize) and control (without ‎plastic). Treatments were applied at the beginning of the experiment and before germination.‎The plastic mulch between rows had the highest growth and yield of maize and sunflower than other treatments. In maize, plastic ‎mulch between the rows had higher biological yield, harvest index, number of seeds per row, ear weight, and 100-seed weight than ‎that of control, but there was no significant difference between plastic mulch between rows and plastic coating on the plant in terms ‎of mentioned traits. There was no significant difference among treatments in terms of number of rows per ear, ear skin weight, and ‎ear length. In sunflower, plastic mulch between rows had higher biological yield, head diameter, head weight, and 100-seed weight ‎than control, and there were no significant differences between treatments in terms of harvest index, and number of seeds per ‎head. ‎The results of this experiment show that by applying plastic mulch, especially ‎between the planting rows and before the seeds ‎germinate, while reducing the ‎length of the growth period and better use of moisture, the seed yield of maize ‎and sunflower can be ‎increased compared to not using plastic mulch by 38 and ‎‎41 percent, respectively. Other possible reasons for increasing grain yield ‎‎under the conditions of using nylon mulch included reducing evaporation and ‎increasing soil temperature at the beginning of the ‎growth period.‎

Background and objectives; The use of mulch, especially plastic mulch not only causes premature fruit, but also its effective to increase of yield, fruit quality and flavour. Plastic mulch in addition to increasing productivity and fruit quality, reduce water losses through evaporation, prevent the growth of weeds and ultimately reduce the use of herbicides. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of red plastic mulch on qualitative characteristics and antioxidant activity of different varieties of strawberries. Material and methods; In this study, to evaluate the effect of plastic mulch red on quality characteristics of different varieties of strawberry fruit, an experiment was conduct based on randomized complete block design with three treatments included ( Camarosa, Silva and Gavietta) with three replications during farming season 2015-2016 in Agricultural sciences and Natural Resources University (SANRU) research farm, Sari, Iran. Fruits, depending on the speed of the ripening were taken in a period of 4 days and after each harvest, the fruit of each plant is carefully weighed and fruits antioxidant activity, phenolic compounds and flavonoids were measured. Strawberry yield data and fruit phytochemical content data were an analyzed using ANOVA of SAS software (SAS 9. 2), and the SNK post hoc test was employed to compare treatment means. Results; The results showed that the red plastic mulch have significant effect on yield and fruit quality in strawberry cultivars. As with the fruit yield of strawberry cultivars Silva 17859. 35 g/per plant) was more than the other two varieties. Fruit anthocyanin in Camarosa and Gavietta cultivars, with (80. 56 mg /100g) and (77. 2 mg /100g) higher than Silva cultivar with(69. 26 mg /100g), respectively. but there was no significant difference between the two cultivars. The content of total phenolic and flavonoids fruits of Camarosa with 55. 53 mg /g and 60. 16 mg/g was higher than the other cultivars, respectively. Also, the results showed that the red plastic mulch had no significant effect on antioxidant activity of different cultivars. Conclusion; Based on the findings, strawberry fruit yield in Silva was higher than to the tow cultivars. Also, higher anthocyanin content, phenol and flavonoid content of Camarosa strawberry fruit can be genetic potential of Camarosa and quality of reflected light from the red mulch attributed. It is believed that in this study, genetic potential of cultivars and optical quality of the environment surrounding the plant, has an important role in improving the quality of strawberry fruit.

To study the effects of using plastic mulch on soil moisture and salinity changes under drip irrigation system in mature pistachio trees (Ohadi cultivar), a research was conducted in a randomized complete block design in two orchards with different treatments in terms of water consumption (4100 and 6170 m3/ha), irrigation frequency (8 and 12 days), and trees growth. The study was carried out in the western suburbs of Rafsanjan, Iran. In each of the orchards, three mulch treatments including: without mulch (treatment C), black-and-white plastic mulch (treatments MB, MW), with three replications were used. At the end of the season, data on growth characteristics, quality and quantity of the product, and water use productivity (WUP), were averaged and compared using Duncan multiple range test to determine the effects of using plastic mulch on these traits. The results showed significant effect of plastic mulch on all growth factors, quantity and quality of yield, and water use productivity. Moreover, in most cases, the color of mulch did not affect these traits. Overall, using plastic mulch in orchard 1 increased the dry product up to 271 g per tree, reduced blanking to 10.6 percent, increased splitting by 11.2 percent, reduced the number of grains per ounce of pistachios by 2.3 units, and increased the water use productivity by 100 percent compared to the control. Also, in orchard 2, plastic mulch increased the dry product up to 1090 g per tree and increased the water use productivity by 36 percent compared to the control. Measurement of soil moisture changes in between two consecutive irrigations indicated significant effect of mulching on conserving soil moisture in comparison with the control. Considering the Permanent Wilting Point (PWP) and Readily Available Water (RAW) of the experimental soils, proper irrigation frequency for pistachio trees in uncovered loamy sand to sandy loam soils under drip irrigation is 5 to 9 days, and in the use of plastic mulch, it is 11 to 15 days.