A protective covering, as of bark chips, straw, or plastic sheeting, placed on the ground around plants to suppress weed growth, retain soil moisture, or prevent freezing of roots.
tr.v.mulched, mulch·ing, mulch·es
To cover or surround with mulch.
[Probably from Middle English molsh, soft, moist (used of soil); akin to Dutch mals, soft, mellow, from Middle Dutch malsch; see mel- in Indo-European roots.]
1. a covering, as of straw, compost, or plastic sheeting, spread on the ground around plants to prevent excessive evaporation or erosion, enrich the soil, etc.
v.t.
2. to cover with mulch.
[1650–60; n. use of obsolete mulch (adj.), Middle English molsh soft, Old English myl(i)sc mellow; c. dial. German molsch soft, overripe]
A technique of adding a layer to the surface of the soil to suppress weeds and prevent water loss through evaporation. There are three main types: fabric sheet mulches; organic loose mulches, such as chipped bark; and inorganic loose mulches, such as gravel or pebbles.
mulch - a protective covering of rotting vegetable matter spread to reduce evaporation and soil erosion
protective cover, protective covering, protection - a covering that is intend to protect from damage or injury; "they had no protection from the fallout"; "wax provided protection for the floors"
Verb
1.
mulch - cover with mulch; "mulch the flowerbeds"
cover - provide with a covering or cause to be covered; "cover her face with a handkerchief"; "cover the child with a blanket"; "cover the grave with flowers"
The dairymaids and men had flocked down from their cottages and out of the dairy-house with the arrival of the cows from the meads; the maids walking in patterns, not on account of the weather, but to keep their shoes above the mulch of the barton.
He wore the ordinary white pinner and leather leggings of a dairy-farmer when milking, and his boots were clogged with the mulch of the yard; but this was all his local livery.
Five treatments were initiated during 2013-2016: (i) CK: the control, conventional flat planting without plastic film mulching; (ii) P: flat planting with maize rows on plastic film mulch (70 cm) in planting zone; alternating mulching and bare rows without ridges and planting in mulched rows; (iii) S: separated by consecutive plastic film-mulched ridges, and plastic film mulching on ridge (50 cm) and maize planting in narrow furrow (10 cm) without mulching; (iv) D: full plastic film mulching on double ridges (large ridges: 70 cm in width by 15 cm in height; small ridges: 50 cm in width by 10 cm in height) and planting in catchment furrows; and (v) R: plastic film-mulched ridge (60 cm) alternating with a flat without plastic film-mulched space (60 cm), and maize planting at the film side.
The treatments comprised combinations of four types of mulches, viz., black plastic mulch (BP), grass mulch (GM), pine needles (Pinus roxburghii) mulch (PN), unmulched control (UM) and three levels of nutrients, i.e., N1 (125% of recommended dose of NPK), N2 (100% recommended dose of NPK) and N3 (75% of recommended dose of NPK).
Each mulch had three rows (each row contained two lines of plants) 1 m apart from each other, and 1.5 m spacing was kept in between black polythene mulch and rice straw mulch to prevent the water from going to other plots and affecting them.
The successful application of EPNs to protect sugarcane crops in Brazil requires consideration of several aspects, including the widespread use of mechanical harvesting, which discards the cane leaves in the field, resulting in a thick lay of mulch covering the ground.
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