Effect of Plastic Mulch Color on Fresh Weight of Leaf Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and Soil Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

Lettuce was grown with five different colors of plastic mulch to evaluate its effect on fresh weight of leaf lettuce and soil carbon dioxide. The plastic mulches were silver, red, orange, yellow and green. A Split plot following the Randomized Complete Block design was used in the experiment. The obtained result showed that Looseleaf variety had better response in terms of the plant fresh weight compared with the Romaine variety and different color of the mulch significantly affected the fresh weight of leaf lettuce. Lettuce when grown with red plastic mulch had better result or heavier compared with the other colored plastic mulch. The mulch color showed no significant variation on the soil carbon dioxide produced from the different colored plastic mulch