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Effect of Organic and Synthetic Mulches on Soil Temperature, Nutrient Availability and Yield of Squash

The field experiment was conducted on squash cv. Bulam house at Central Research Farm, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur under AEZ-28 during rabi season of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 to study the effect of organic and synthetic mulches on soil temperature, nutrient availability and yield of squash.The treatments were T1: control, T2: black polyethylene mulch, T3: white polyethylene mulch and T4: rice straw mulch. The experiment is laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD), where each treatment was replicated thrice. Data on growth and yield attributes of squash were collected during the crop growing season and after harvesting. Soil temperatures were differentially affected by the type of polyethylene mulch, with temperatures generally following the order: white polyethylene mulch>rice straw mulch>black polyethylene mulch. All plant growth characters, yield and yield contributing characters were superior with white polyethylene relative to grown without mulch (control). Treatment T3 (white polyethylene mulch) resulted in increased single fruit weight (kg) of squash than control. Fruit yield was also increased when grown in soil under white polyethylene mulch i.e. 37.6 tha-1. White polyethylene mulch had 282 % increase in yield per ha over control. The higher yield was associated with higher soil temperature in white polythene mulch compared to other mulches during crop growing period