Abstract
Field experiments were carried out to evaluate the effects of different soil mulch materials and herbicides on growth and yield
of tomato and weed control at two locations in Jordan during the 2016 and 2017 growing seasons. Treatments included different
new nonwoven biodegradable UV-treated polypropylene fabrics, paper, black plastic, animal manure, straw mulches, five soilapplied herbicides, and weed-free and weed-infested controls. On average, weed competition with tomato for the entire
growing season reduced marketable fruit yield by 58.6% of the weed-free control. Animal manure, black/white mulch/double
face 45 g/m2
(GSM) density (B/WMD45) and paper mulches resulted highest tomato growth and fruit yield at the University
of Jordan Campus. Other polypropylene treatments gave similar yield to that of plastic mulch while all mulch treatments gave
higher yield than herbicides. Of the herbicides, metribuzin and trifluralin treated plots produced the lowest fruit yield. Similar
trends for tomato yield and weed growth were also obtained at the Jordan Valley Research Station except for black plastic that
gave the highest fruit yield but not significantly different from that of B/WMD45, paper and weed-free control. Among
herbicides, oxyfluorfen resulted highest yield but differences between herbicide treatments were not significant. The highest
tomato growth and fruit yield were from paper, black plastic, B/WMD45, and animal manure treatments and the lowest for
herbicides and weed-infested treatments. B/WMD45 may be considered as a suitable substitute for black plastic in tomato
fields.
