GROWING OF THE ORGANIC POTATOES WITH USING OF THE MULCHING MATERIALS

Mulching which has become more popular lately is an important way of soil protection in the plant production. Mulching massively reduces soil erosion [DÖRING ET AL., 2005], virus vector in seed potatoes [DÖRING ET AL., 2006] and it may also act as a tool for the control of nitrogen losses by immobilization of post-harvest nitrate [DÖRING ET AL., 2005]. Mulch especially reduces water evaporation from soil and helps to maintain stable soil temperature [JI AND UNGER, 2001; KAR AND KUMAR, 2007]. For that reason, the cover of mulch influences soil moisture as well [BRANT ET AL., 2006]. Next, mulching has a positive effect on the weed density, which has been documented by results of some authors [DÖRING ET AL., 2005; JOHNSON ET AL., 2004; SINKEVIČIENE ET AL., 2009]. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the effect of different mulch materials (organic and plastic mulch) on yield and on some factors that influence potatoes production in potato growing region of the Czech Republic. The research was mainly focused on the effect of mulching on air temperature, air relative humidity and occurrence of the late blight