Abstract
High temperature during sprout emergence period of potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a major limitation to the yield of fall-grown potato in Korea. To explore the possibility of improving the yield of fall-grown potato through recycled paper mulching, the changes of soil environment and the growth and yield of potato cv. Daeji as affected by three mulching treatments of non-mulched control, recycled paper mulching (RPM), and black polyethylene film-mulching (BPFM) were examined over two fall seasons at Suwon, Korea. The mulching materials were a recycled mulch paper with 110 g/$m^2$ and a thickness of 0.1 mm, which was manufactured from old corrugated containers for this experiment and a commercial black polyethylene film with a thickness of 0.01mm. On an average throughout the growing period, the soil temperature with RPM at the 5-cm depth was lower by 0.4-1.1$^{\circ}C$ than that of the control. The maximum temperature during daytime in RPM was lowered by approximately 1 to 5$^{\circ}C$ according to the weather condition during emergence period, the difference being great on a fine day. The soil temperature with BPFM was much higher than the control. The effect of the mulching treatments diminished as the canopy became developed. The mulching treatments were more advantageous than the control in the conservation of soil water. Moreover, RPM and BPFM efficiently suppressed the occurrence of weeds until the potato harvest. RPM improved the emergence significantly due to lower soil temperature, whereas BPFM showed much poorer emergence than the control. Growth after emergence and yield were significantly higher in RPM than in the control and BPFM. It was concluded that the significantly improved yield in RPM compared to that in the control was mainly due to the improvement of the sprout emergence and tuber growth accompanied by lower soil temperature and better conservation of soil water.
