Document Type : Pest Management
Authors
Abstract
Polyethylene mulches have been recently used widely for different reasons in vegetable culturing. To evaluate the effects of colored mulches on the repelling vector aphids, plant growth rate and reducing viral diseases, the experiment was conducted in Kaboutar-Abad agricultural research station (Isfahan, Iran). The study was conducted in a randomized complete block design with 4 replications and 6 treatments (black with aluminum strip (B+A), aluminum (A), transparent (T), red (R), black (B) and control (c) or without mulch). Population density of vector aphids was recorded by yellow water trap in weekly intervals. Plant growth rate and infection percentage to prevalent viruses (CMV, WMV-2 and ZYMV) were determined till flowering and fruiting stage. Results showed that treatments of A and B+A repel vector aphids effectively and had significant differences with other mulches. For percentage infection to total viruses, treatments were placed in three groups. First group had the lowest infection including mulches of A and B+A (12.22 and 10.69, respectively), second group included mulches of T, R and B (24.17, 24.54 and 28.43, respectively) and third group had highest infection included control (38.82). For CMV, WMV-2 and ZYMV, the highest percentage infection belonged to control (11.28, 20.54 and 22.42, respectively) and the lowest percentage infection belonged to B+A (7.00, 7.01 and 7.77, respectively). The highest 3-year mean of vector aphids density was in control (522.42) and the lowest one was in B+A (141.92). Plants in mulched treatments, compared to control, reached 7 days earlier to 50% sprouting and 10 days earlier to 50% flowering. Therefore, it reveals that in addition to reflecting effects of sunlight resulted to repelling vector aphids, increasing growth rate of plants were also effective in reducing viral infections.
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