Abstract:

Degradable plastic film is one of the effective ways to solve the ‘white pollution’. The matching of the safety period of degradable plastic film with climatic conditions is a prerequisite to ensure cotton growth and seed cotton yield. In this study, three kinds of degradable plastic film were used as test materials to investigate the degradation of plastic film, agronomic characters and yield of cotton. Compared with the control without plastic film mulching, plastic film mulching promoted the growth of cotton and increased cotton yield by 6.6% to 21.3%. Due to the different materials of degradable plastic film, there were significant differences in the degradation characteristics, agronomic characters and yield (P<0.05). The degradation rate of the whole biodegradable plastic film was the fastest, and it entered the induction stage earlier than the photodegradable plastic film, especially the full biodegradable plastic film which was mainly composed of PBAT and could be degraded completely after 120 days. Due to premature degradation, the yield of PBAT was significantly lower than that of conventional PE plastic film, but there was no significant difference between PLA and PE. The degraded plastic film mainly composed of PLA matched well with the climatic conditions and cotton growth of Shihezi region, and there was no significant difference in cotton yield between PLA and PE.

Key words: Shihezi, reclamation area, degradable plastic film, white pollution, degradation period, cotton, agronomic characters, yield