Effect of Mulching on “Green Coronet” Cabbage (Brassica oleracea) Cultivation in Welimada Area

Abstract

Mulches give many benefits in vegetable production, although their use has not been studied under home garden conditions. Cabbage is one of the major vegetables cultivate in large extent mainly in the up-country area as a year-round crop. Mulches are principally use for strawberry cultivation in Nuwaraeliya district, but still not field of vegetable cultivation. Hence, present study was carried out to identify the most effective and suitable mulch material on cabbage cultivation. This study was done at farmer fields located in Welimada area. Healthy 25-27 days old cabbage seedlings were used as planting materials. The seedlings were transplanted on flat beds. Following applications were made as the treatments giving attention on mulching: (i) no mulch (control) (T1), (ii) white polytene (T2), (iii) silver polytene (T3), and (iv) weed slash (organic) (T4). Treatments were assigned in a complete randomized block design (RCBD) with five replicates. Measurements were commenced at the second week after transplanting given the fact that the plants were fully established and continued weekly until the time of harvesting. The data collection included measurements related to following growth parameters: leaf area (cm2), head girth, (cm), fresh mass (g), dry mass of whole cabbage (g), length of roots (cm), no of roots, no of leaves and weed infestation. Data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using Minitab 16 statistical package. Mean comparison was undertaken following the turkey test, at p= 0.05. Results showed that mulch type significantly (P<0.05) affected on growth and yield of cabbage and weed infestation. There was significant difference (P<0.05) between yield of cabbage heads from plots mulched with white mulch and silver mulch. Silver mulches showed burning effect for cabbage production. White mulch was most suitable mulch material according to leaf area, head girth, fresh mass, dry mass, length of roots, number of roots, number of leaves and weed infestation parameter for cabbage production. The control treatment showed that lowest yield of cabbage production. White mulch could be recommended to increase the Green coronet cabbage production in up country.