IInfluence of the use of drip irrigation systems and different mulching materials on ornamental sunflowers in greenhouse cultivation

This research, conducted during the 2010 spring-summer seasons in a plastic greenhouse Mediterranean type environment, investigated the effects of drip irrigation system (I1= surface drip irrigation; I2= subsurface drip irrigation) and mulching materials (PM1= black LDPE; PM2= LDPE white on black coextruded; BM1= black biodegradable spray with chitosan; BM2= black biodegradable spray with galactomannans and agarose; U.M= non mulching soil), on soil thermal behaviour, Irrigation Water Productivity (IWP), yield and quality features of ornamental sunflower cut stems. The sprays are two pre-competitive research materials, prepared using natural polymers. The thermal analysis showed that the mulching plastic films increased the soil temperatures around of 2°C, compared with the un-mulching soil, at 20cm depth; instead the mulching sprays didn’t influence significantly the thermal soil behaviour. The agronomic results showed that I1 had more advantage than I2 and that both PM2 e BM1 had the highest IWP values. Among the different mulches the values were, in order, PM1>PM2>BM2>BM1>UM for sunflower yield and qualitative characteristics.