Abstract
Black plastic mulch is used predominantly for winter strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) production in Florida because of its warming effects. However, black plastic mulch can increase heat stress during establishment, especially when growers advance planting dates (e.g., late September) to improve earliness. Consequently, we designed a new plastic mulch film that has a metalized center stripe with black shoulders. We hypothesized that metalized-striped mulch can minimize heat stress during establishment, while maintaining the warming effects of black mulch during winter. We conducted field trials over two seasons to evaluate black mulch, fully metalized mulch, and metalized-striped mulch using two cultivars differing in heat stress tolerance and fruit production patterns: ‘Florida Radiance’ and ‘Florida Beauty’. The effect of plastic mulch type on plant growth and yield was generally consistent across both seasons. Compared with black mulch, metalized-striped mulch reduced afternoon root-zone temperature (RZT) by up to 3.1 °C and reduced the duration of heat stress conditions (RZT > 30 °C) by 119 hours across October and November, but exhibited equivalent soil warming during winter. Yield increases by metalized-striped mulch compared with black mulch ranged from 19% to 34% in the early season (November–January), 6% to 20% in the late season (February–March), and 12% to 26% over the entire season. Statistical significance was detected for the 2016–17 early-season yield and when yield data were expressed on a weekly basis. Compared with black mulch, metalized-striped mulch improved fruit number significantly without affecting fruit weight or canopy area, suggesting that heat stress on black mulch negatively affects flower and fruit development more than plant growth. Weekly fruit yield data indicate that metalized-striped mulch can produce greater yields than fully metalized mulch. Metalized-striped mulch is an easily implementable strategy for reducing establishment heat stress and improving fruit earliness in subtropical winter strawberry production regions.
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Claims 11
Claim · model-written summary
Metalized-striped mulch reduced afternoon root-zone temperature (RZT) relative to black mulch by up to 3.1 °C.
- Taxon
- strawberry
_single2.jpg?width=60)
Fragaria ×ananassat0 - Treatment
- metalized-striped mulche0
- Outcome
- afternoon root-zone temperature (RZT)e0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- up to 3.1 °Ce0
- Comparator
- black mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
_single2.jpg?width=500)
Verbatim
e0“Compared with black mulch, metalized-striped mulch reduced afternoon root-zone temperature (RZT) by up to 3.1 °C and reduced the duration of heat stress conditions (RZT > 30 °C) by 119 hours across October and November, but exhibited equivalent soil warming during winter”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Metalized-striped mulch reduced duration of heat stress conditions relative to black mulch by 119 hours.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- metalized-striped mulche0
- Outcome
- duration of heat stress conditionse0
- Direction
- reducede0
- Value
- 119 hourse0
- Comparator
- black mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Compared with black mulch, metalized-striped mulch reduced afternoon root-zone temperature (RZT) by up to 3.1 °C and reduced the duration of heat stress conditions (RZT > 30 °C) by 119 hours across October and November, but exhibited equivalent soil warming during winter”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Metalized-striped mulch equivalent soil warming relative to black mulch.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- metalized-striped mulche0
- Outcome
- soil warminge0
- Direction
- equivalente0
- Comparator
- black mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Compared with black mulch, metalized-striped mulch reduced afternoon root-zone temperature (RZT) by up to 3.1 °C and reduced the duration of heat stress conditions (RZT > 30 °C) by 119 hours across October and November, but exhibited equivalent soil warming during winter”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Metalized-striped mulch increases Yield relative to black mulch by 19% to 34%.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- metalized-striped mulche0
- Outcome
- Yielde0
- Direction
- increasese0
- Value
- 19% to 34%e0
- Comparator
- black mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Yield increases by metalized-striped mulch compared with black mulch ranged from 19% to 34% in the early season (November–January), 6% to 20% in the late season (February–March), and 12% to 26% over the entire season”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Metalized-striped mulch increase Yield relative to black mulch by 6% to 20%.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- metalized-striped mulche0
- Outcome
- Yielde0
- Direction
- increaseinferrede0
- Value
- 6% to 20%e0
- Comparator
- black mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Yield increases by metalized-striped mulch compared with black mulch ranged from 19% to 34% in the early season (November–January), 6% to 20% in the late season (February–March), and 12% to 26% over the entire season”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Metalized-striped mulch increase Yield relative to black mulch by 12% to 26%.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- metalized-striped mulche0
- Outcome
- Yielde0
- Direction
- increaseinferrede0
- Value
- 12% to 26%e0
- Comparator
- black mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Yield increases by metalized-striped mulch compared with black mulch ranged from 19% to 34% in the early season (November–January), 6% to 20% in the late season (February–March), and 12% to 26% over the entire season”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Metalized-striped mulch improved fruit number relative to black mulch.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- metalized-striped mulche0
- Outcome
- fruit numbere0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Comparator
- black mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Compared with black mulch, metalized-striped mulch improved fruit number significantly without affecting fruit weight or canopy area”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Metalized-striped mulch without affecting fruit weight or canopy area relative to black mulch.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- metalized-striped mulche0
- Outcome
- fruit weight or canopy areae0
- Direction
- without affectinge0
- Comparator
- black mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Compared with black mulch, metalized-striped mulch improved fruit number significantly without affecting fruit weight or canopy area”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
Metalized-striped mulch greater yields relative to fully metalized mulch.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- metalized-striped mulche0
- Outcome
- yieldse0
- Direction
- greatere0
- Comparator
- fully metalized mulche0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“metalized-striped mulch can produce greater yields than fully metalized mulch”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors suggest heat stress on black mulch harms flower and fruit development more than plant growth.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- heat stress on black mulche0
- Outcome
- flower and fruit developmente0
- Direction
- negatively affectse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“heat stress on black mulch negatively affects flower and fruit development more than plant growth”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend metalized-striped mulch to reduce establishment heat stress and improve fruit earliness.
- Taxon
- strawberryFragaria ×ananassat0
- Treatment
- Metalized-striped mulche0
- Outcome
- reducing establishment heat stress and improving fruit earlinesse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Metalized-striped mulch is an easily implementable strategy for reducing establishment heat stress and improving fruit earliness in subtropical winter strawberry production regions”
t0“Annual Winter Strawberry”
The same questions in other papers
mulching · yield · Fragaria x ananassa (strawberry)Results differ
77 papers in the same direction as this paper · 15 in the opposite direction · 4 reporting no difference from an alternative
- negative
- negative
- no effect
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See all 97 papers →mulching · soil: physics · Fragaria x ananassa (strawberry)Results agree
11 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
- positive
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See all 12 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.