EXPERIMENTAL TESTS ON INNOVATIVE AND BIODEGRADABLE FILMS FOR SOLARIZATION SOIL IN A SITE OF SOUTH ITALY

Wide diffusion in agriculture of plastic films for protected cultivation, mulching and soil solarization, arises from satisfying agricultural results obtained using them; furthermore the solarization is a technique to sterilize the soil of low environmental impact. Spread use of plastic materials causes a growing interest of the researchers to introduce innovative films with satisfying mechanical characteristics and environmentally compatible too, in order to recent rules. In this paper, traditional plastic materials, innovative and biodegradable materials are analyzed; besides them use for solarization of soil is experimentally valued by tests carried out in a greenhouse located in Metaponto, a little town of south Italy. Experimental tests of solarization show that: the co-extruded materials and traditional plastic may be usefully employed in solarization; finally further enquires about biodegradable films are needed in order to evaluate the degradation times relating to the utilization times.