Agricultural ground film

Controlling weeds in commercial crops without resorting to chemical herbicides that leave residues in harvests and compromise organic certification, while preserving soil moisture and keeping fruit clean without contact with the ground, requires polyethylene mulching plastic with UV additives adapted to Caribbean radiation and a color option suitable for the crop. This agricultural soil plastic—also called agricultural mulch, plastic mulching, or soil agrofilm—is manufactured by Gardese in 25 µm (gauge 100) LDPE, in three finishes (black, black-silver, black-white), in rolls 1.2 m wide and 1000 m long, designed for vegetables, berries, melons, pineapples, and row crops with drip irrigation.

Key Benefits

• Weed control by light blocking: Opaque plastic interrupts photosynthesis of spontaneous weeds in the growing bed, eliminating competition for water and nutrients and reducing or suppressing herbicide application, a decisive advantage for certified organic production.
• Soil moisture conservation: The impermeable cover eliminates direct evaporation, significantly reducing irrigation needs and maintaining stable moisture in the root zone for days after each application.
• Three color finishes for different crops: Black absorbs heat and raises soil temperature (ideal for watermelon, melon, pineapple in cold or seasonal soil); black-silver reflects light to the crop, increasing photosynthesis and repelling aphids; black-white maintains moderate temperature (optimal for strawberries, lettuce, and heat-sensitive crops).
• Compatible with subsurface drip irrigation: The drip tape is installed under the plastic before setup, allowing direct fertigation to the root system without evaporation and without water contact with the sun-exposed surface.
• Clean fruit without soil contact: The plastic physically separates fruit and soil, eliminating stains, contact rot, and bacterial contamination in crops such as strawberries, watermelons, melons, and cucumbers, a critical condition for export fruit.

Typical applications and uses

• Row horticultural crops: tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, zucchini, eggplant, young citrus in transition to open field.
• Strawberry and other berry production where fruit requires separation from the soil.
• Cucurbits (watermelon, melon, cucumber) and pineapple in areas with persistent weed problems or scarce water.
• Certified organic production that needs to control weeds without glyphosate or residual herbicides.

Quality and durability

An inexpensive mulching plastic fails in two ways: the LDPE is low-quality recycled material (which tears at the first pass of the tractor or manual installation) and lacks an adequate UV additive (which causes embrittlement and disintegration after a few months, leaving microfragments in the soil). Gardese works with controlled LDPE and UV additives calibrated for the Caribbean climate, which differentiates a professional crop mulch from a generic plastic that disintegrates before harvest.