**4.3. Application for horticultural nursery pot**

insulating material, etc. as per as the agricultural application is concerned; it is mostly used as mulching material, thermal insulating material for control soil temperature, soil moisture control material, cannel lining material, horticultural nursery pot, etc. some of the promising

Efficient management of soil moisture by jute needle-punched nonwoven for cultivation of horticultural crops in red lateritic zone has been attempted at West Medinapur District of West Bengal, India. The experiments on vegetable cultivation were laid out in randomized block design (RBD) with three vegetables – cauliflower, tomato, and beans – and four types of jute

control. There is evidence that mulching with jute geotextiles increased the yield of cauliflower substantially and that of tomato to a lesser extent. It had practically insignificant effect in the yield of beans. Maximum yield of 73.66 t/ha of cauliflower was obtained with jute nonwoven

beans had negative effect with mulching by jute nonwoven. The results also confirm that

substantially, that is, more than 100 fruits per plant per year as compared to only 34 fruits per

Nonwoven fabric samples were selected as mulch materials at the experimental field of tea plantation, situated at Gopali village (near IIT, Kharagpur, West Bengal). In the first phase, these fabric samples were laid in between the two rows of tea plants (Tocklai of Assam variety) where the spacing between the two rows was 1 metre and between the two plants in a row was 0.7 metre. The length of each row was 16 metres. For each sample two rows were used for

length were used for the continuous row mulching process. Two separate rows were kept for control/without any mulching material. Uniform amount of water was spread over the tea plantation in both the control and mulched area using standard sprinkler at the rate of 5hours/ day. The mulch performance was studied by measuring the biomass in 2-month intervals. Some critical observations regarding the types of weeds grown were also reported. This

Four trapezoidal channels of 50 metre length each were constructed with zero bed slope and were lined with jute geotextile (nonwoven geotextile coated with polythene sheet either on single side or double sides) of 1 metre width and different fabric densities. Final dimensions of the channels were measured at different sections of each of the channels and average dimensions were determined as shown in Table 1 [29]. The experiment was undertaken in field channels laid out in the experimental firms of BCKV, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal.

The weather data consisting of daily maximum and minimum temperatures, evaporation, rainfall, and maximum and minimum relative humidity were collected from the weather

plant per year obtained under traditional cultivation method [27-28].

mulching experiment. Jute nonwoven samples (150, 200, and 250 g/m2

experiment was replicated five times for test of significance.

, 200 g/m2

fabric as compared to 83.39 t/ha achieved under controlled conditions. However,

(control 49.08 t/ha) whereas tomato's increased yield was 110.39 t/ha with

, 250 g/m2

fabric density increased the yield of sweet lime fruits

, and 300 g/m2

excluding

) each of 32 metres in

applications and case studies are covered below.

**4.1. Application for mulching application**

nonwoven mulch of fabric densities 150 g/m2

mulching with jute nonwoven of 300 g/m2

**4.2. Application for cannel lining**

fabric of 250 g/m2

150 g/m2

290 Non-woven Fabrics

Horticulture pot of 3' x 8' has been made from jute needle punched fabric for use in nursery in place of conventionally used plastic bag. The jute needle punched nonwoven is made from TD3 jute and waste jute. In both cases, scrim cloth reinforcement has been given at the back to avoid the damage during use and to retain dimensional stability [30].
