INFLUENCE OF SPRAYABLE MULCH COLOR ON YIELD OF EGGPLANT (SOLANUM-MELONGENA L. CV MILLIONAIRE)

Planting beds. were treated with sprayable, synthetic latex film (BASF , Charlotte, NC, USA) and oversprayed with black, white, red, blue, ye llow or silver oil-based paint to study the effect of coloured spray m ulches on yield of eggplant (Solanum melongena L. cv. Millionaire). No npainted mulch base and bare ground plots served as control treatments . Individual experimental units consisted of three rows, 102 cm wide x 7.3 m long, transplanted with 8 plants per row. Treatments were repli cated in four blocks each at two separate locations near Fresno, CA. P lants grown on silver-painted beds produced significantly greater numb ers (42-221%) of fruit and total fruit weight (12-237%) than all other treatments at both locations after eight harvests. Silver-painted mul ch stimulated significantly greater flowering and fruit set numbers pr ior to the first harvest at one site. Apart from silver, only blue-and white-coloured mulches provided increased numbers and/or fresh weight yields at one site only. Mulched plots painted with other colours did not produce yields different from either the bare ground or nonpainte d mulch base controls at either site. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.