Ferruccio Filippi¹, Galileo Magnani¹,Sara Guerrini²,
¹Dipartimento Biologia delle Piante Agrarie, Università di Pisa, Italy;
²Novamont Spa, Novara, Italy.

Abstract. Biodegradable mulch films represent an important tool for farmers to reduce the environmental impact and the labour costs of crops. Several different kind of biodegradable plastic films have been developed in recent years by producers and among them, coloured ones seem to be important to try and improve the crop yield and anticipate the production.

The aim of this research was to evaluate the effects of biodegradable coloured mulch films on melon (Cucumis melo L.) yield and quality. Three different kind of biodegradable mulch films (green, brown and black) were compared to a traditional black LDPE film used as control. The trial was carried out in collaboration with Novamont Spa, which provided the biodegradable mulch films and it was located at the fields of ‘Dipartimento di Biologia delle Piante Agrarie’ (University of Pisa, Italy). The results obtained showed a decrease in soil temperature under brown degradable film compared to LDPE black film, while the green biodegradable film had a similar temperature compared to LDPE. All the degradable films presented a fast degradation along the crop cycle and disappeared completely from the soil after crop harvesting, providing the same conditions guaranteed by the traditional LDPE film. Green biodegradable film showed the best result, together with LDPE, in terms of yield produced during the first week (early crop). Moreover it presented the highest total yield, both for number and weight of fruits. Finally, the parameters measured to determine the commercial quality, did not present any difference among the thesis under evaluation.

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