5 important facts that you should know about Mulching Paper

The perfectly rotund, strikingly red with a shiny peel, healthy-looking lot of tomatoes on the vegetable vendor’s lorry was sheer poetry to the eyes that explored it, as were the amazingly fresh bunches of spinach that rested close by. A finger test bore testimony to their genuineness.

The culinary test, followed by a taste test by all family members, was the ultimate proof of their veracity of being a healthy product of mulching, one of the pathbreaking additions to the India’s agricultural scenario. Apparently, these veggies grew under the protection of Mulching paper or sheet, which lent them their healthful sheen.

The chef took the compliments for the end product, while the vendor gloated over their superior quality, even as the farmer, the true champion of this green game, still remains unsung. But the point that matters here is the abundance and healthfulness of the crop, an outcome of the practice of mulching, which can help him get the price that he actually deserves for all his labour.

It is a rare, but pleasant sight to spot perfectly healthy vegetables, which do not only look good on the outside, but are also perfect on the inside, and fit to cook and consume. A crop that grows under the protection of Mulching paper or sheets is bound to be abundant and healthful from all perspectives.

While the day is not far when such vegetables would actually find their way to the shelves of the Indian vegetable markets, India would have to wake up to and adopt the practice of mulching to make this dream come true for every Indian.

What is Mulching?

Mulching is the process of conditioning the soil for the cultivation of crops, vegetables, fruits and flowers by administering a cover of nutritional ingredients on it. Besides the traditional means of overlaying the soil with organic mulch comprising compost, leaves, grass clippings, straw, stubble, shredded wood, et al, or inorganic mulches including rubber sheets, plastic sheets or crushed stone, nowadays farmers can also use factory-made Mulching paper or mulching sheets for this purpose.

What does mulch do?

Mulch ensures the healthy growth of crops by adding essential nutrients to the soil they are grown in, besides regulating the temperature and alkalinity of the soil, the exposure of the plant to the sunlight, the process of evaporation, thereby reducing the need for irrigation by maintaining adequate moisture content, preventing soil erosion and the resultant leeching of the fertilizers and weed and pest control.

Types of mulch:

Broadly speaking, mulch is of two types — organic or biodegradable mulch (consisting of manure, grass cuttings, leaves, shredded wood, straw or stubble) and inorganic or non-biodegradable mulch (comprising plastic sheets, rubber sheets, pebbles or crushed stone).

While it is extremely important for a farmer or horticulturist to be well-versed with the nitty-gritties of mulching, keeping the demands of the increasing competition in the field of agriculture, companies offering agrarian solutions have come up with a host of mulching products to save farmers’ time and labour.

Mulching paper is one such solution, which can help farmers save time and labour by offering them a short-cut to the practice of mulching. A mulching paper helps the crops grow in a controlled environment. Porous in nature, it is applied over the soil in the beds where cultivation is to be undertaken.

Mulching paper comes in different colours, depending on the needs of different crops.

Five important facts about Mulching paper:

There are five important facts about Mulching paper, which every grower should be very well-acquainted with. These include:

1. Colour:

Mulching paper comes in different colours, which are healthfully as relevant as their aesthetic appeal. A grower should be well-acquainted with the colour of Mulching paper required for the cultivation of a certain kind of crop. Darker shades of Mulching paper are more beneficial in weed control, while the transparent ones create a conducive cultivation environment in the winters or colder climes by raising the temperature of the soil. Other colours have their own applications and benefits in farming.

2. Thickness:

Thickness of the Mulching paper has a bearing on its durability. The thicker the sheet, the more durable it will be. So, if you are planning to grow crops that take a long time to attain maturity, you need to ensure adequate thickness of the Mulching paper sheet you intend to use.

3. Perforations:

A viable sheet of Mulching paper should have just the right amount of perforation for better distribution of water and fertilizers.

4. Insulation: The quality of a Mulching paper should be such that it acts as an insulator for the plant against the extreme weather conditions, ensuring just the right temperature that a plant needs to grow.

5. Width: The correct width of the Mulching paper depends on the breadth of the cultivable land that needs to be brought under its coverage.

The benefits of using mulching paper are more than what just meets the eye. It’s a sort of an agrarian miracle, which only a farmer, who has used it, can testify to.

All said and done, farmers in India need to adopt the practice of mulching by means of using a Mulching paper if they want their crops to be safe, healthy, and worth their weight in gold in the retail market.