The nonwoven mulches produced from regenerated viscose and PLA fibres as well as conventional agro foil were placed on the soil by randomly arranged blocks of four replication plots. After 50 days, the soil samples beneath each mulch and on the control field were collected, where the bacteria and fungi population as well as the physio-chemical properties of the soil were measured. The severe reduction in bacterial population in soil under the agro foil and mulches made of PLA fibres occurs due to the prevalence of high soil temperature. The bacterial population of soil beneath the mulches made of viscose fibre significantly increased due to favourable anaerobic conditions, respectively soil temperature and moisture. Under all mulches, compared to the control field, a higher fungal population was observed. The fungal population under the nonwoven mulch produced by viscose fibres was 161% higher in comparison to the control field. The available nutrient contents of soils under the nonwoven mulches were higher compared to the control field. The control field showed higher available nutrient contents of soil than the field covered by conventional agro foil.
The results of the study reveal that usage of nonwoven mulches made of viscose fibres is most appropriate for short-term mulching application since successfully increases microbial population and improves the physio-chemical properties of soil.
Flax (Linum usitatissimum L.) is an important commercial crop that supplies both linseed and bast fibres for multiple applications. Retting, which is a microbial process, separates industrially useful bast fibres from non-fibre stem tissues. While several methods (i.e., water- and dew-retting) are used to ret flax, more recently enzymes have been evaluated to replace currently used methods. The enzymes remove the noncellulosic compounds from the technical fibres, and at the same time are biodegradable and non-toxic, with no dependence on the weather conditions. Therefore, in this paper an enzymatic retting was researched, and its influence to the flax quality. Comparing the properties of enzyme-retted flax fibres the properties of water-retted ones, it can be found that enzymatic retted fibres are coarser, but much stronger. The results have shown that the strongest fibre was achieved with bath having enzyme concentration 0.2 % with similar fineness compared with other bath concentration. Therefore, this concentration can be considered as optimal one. The use of enzymes to extract fibres provides an environmentally friendly method toward developing reliable and sustainable agriculture using bio- based fibres of enhance quality.
S ciljem podupirana intenzivnijeg koristenja relativno brzo obnovljivih izvora sirovine za primjenu u razlicitim industrijama te s opcim stavom vece odgovornosti prema okolini i potrebom zastite prirodnih resursa lanena vlakna, uz druga stabljicna vlakna, danas ponovo postaju važna u strategiji gospodarskog razvoja. Potencijali ove industrijske biljke su: pozitivan utjecaj na okolinu i gospodarstvo. Naime, proizvodnja lanenih vlakana ne samo da udovoljava zahtjevima tekstilne i drugih industrija, vec pruža i mogucnost otvaranja novih radnih mjesta. SWOT analizom ocjenjena je opravdanost i svrsishodnost pristupa revitalizaciji lana. Lan se može ubrojiti među strateske tekstilne sirovine u Hrvatskoj, a obnavljanje proizvodnje lana kao industrijske sirovine za tekstilnu (odjeca i tehnicki tekstil) i druge industrije (prehrambeni i medicinski proizvodi) ima solidne temelje za razvoj lanarstva i u buducnosti.
The development and application of new types of fibres and their wider application influence the continuous invention of a more economical starching process, as one of the most expensive stages in the technological process of woven fabric production. For example, aramid fibres are increasingly used in clothing with effective protection from mechanical, thermal and abrasion exposure. Simultaneously, comfort and regulation of metabolic heat are extremely important, and this is achieved by using cotton woven fabrics. For such a woven fabrics to satisfy the protective properties and the possibility of all-day wear, fibre is needed, and thus a yarn, that will enable the efficient production of fine, light and comfortable protective woven fabrics. This paper investigates the influence of starching on the mechanical properties of aramid yarns and their comparison to cotton yarns of the same fineness. This will lead to knowledge about the efficiency and necessity of aramid yarn starching. The tests were carried out on an industrial and laboratory starching machine. According to the obtained results, the necessity and the improvement of the physical-mechanical properties of cotton and aramid yarns can be determined, both by industrial and laboratory starching. Finer yarn starched by the laboratory starching process achieves greater efficiency in the yarn's strength and resistance to wear, which indicates the need for starching aramid yarns, especially fineness 16.6 × 2 tex, but also finer ones.
The need for sustainable alternatives to conventional plastic mulches in agriculture has led to the development of various types of biodegradable mulches made from natural fibres and biopolymers to reduce environmental pollution and mitigate soil pollution caused by conventional plastic mulch usage. Degradation, impact on soil temperature and humidity, and weed suppression properties of needle-punched nonwoven mulches of different mass per unit area, made of jute, hemp, viscose, and PLA biopolymer, are investigated. Their biodegradation is determined by changes in the mulch properties (mass per unit area, thickness, air permeability, tensile properties, microscopic images, and FTIR analyses) during 300 days of exposure to the environmental conditions in the period from May 2022 to February 2023. The change in mass per unit area, thickness, air permeability, and tensile properties of nonwoven mulches did not show a tendency to degrade during exposure to environmental conditions. The microscopic and FTIR analysis showed the degradation of the fibres from the mulches during the exposure time to a certain extent. The environmental conditions influence the change in the dimensions of the mulches (shrinkage and expansion)—which impact periodically tested mass results per unit area—as well as their thickness and air permeability. The nonwoven mulches provide higher temperatures compared to bare soil, though not as high as those observed beneath traditional agricultural foil. When comparing the humidity in bare soil and soil covered by mulches during the plant growth period (June to October), it was found that soil humidity was higher beneath all mulches. The nonwoven mulches provide superior soil moisture retention compared to conventionally used agrofoil. Almost all nonwoven mulches effectively suppressed weed growth, except hemp mulches. The newly produced mulches have the potential to replace traditional agrofoil, offering improved conditions for plant growth, effective weed control, and faster degradation without causing harm to the environment.
Cultivar trials with fibre flax were set up in three years (2008-2010) and in two locations: at the experimental fields of the Faculty of Agriculture in Zagreb on eutric cambisol and of the College of Agriculture at Križevci on pseudogley on level terrain. The aim was to determine the influence of nitrogen fertilization on the agronomic traits (dry stem yield, dry stem yield after retting, total fibre yield, share of total fibre, long fibre yield and share of long fibre) of five fibre flax cultivars. The selected cultivars were fertilized with different nitrogen rates (0, 30, 60 and 90 kg/ha) at different times. The trials were carried out according to the RCBD with four replications. According to the results of the three-years research into the agronomic traits of fibre flax, significant differences were established among the cultivars and among the added nitrogen rates under study. The cultivars Agatha, Viola and Electra recorded higher values of investigated traits (dry stem yield, dry stem yield after retting, total fibre yield, long fibre yield) in three years and share of total fibre and share of long fibre in one of two years. The optimal nitrogen rate for fibre flax according to the obtained results was 30 kg nitrogen ha -1
The amount and quality of fibres depend on a whole range of factors, the most important being variety, agroecological conditions, agrotechnics and the degree of fibre flax plant maturity, the purpose for which flax is grown, retting and processing. The retting of fibre flax is the most complex stage in the processing of flax into fibre. The aim of this study was to gain knowledge about the acclimatization ability of foreign varieties that can potentially be adapted to climatic in Republic Croatia. Therefore, this paper presents the results of achieved agronomic traits (dry stem yield, dry stem after retting, total fibre yield, long fibre yield, share of total fibre and share of long fibre) of five foreign varieties of fibre flax. The selected varieties were retted in very soft, medium hard and hard water. Variety trials with fibre flax were set up over three years (2012–2014) at two locations (Zagreb) on anthropogenized eutric cambisol and (Križevci) on pseudogley on level terrain. The trials were carried out according to the RCBD in four replications. According to the results of the three-year research into the agronomic traits of fibre flax, significant differences were identified among the varieties studied. The varieties Agatha, Viola and Electra recorded the highest values of studied traits. Statistically significant differences were only recorded among different water hardness for long fibre yield in 2012 and share of total fibre in 2013 in Zagreb. The highest yields and share of fibres were recorded when the fibre flax was retted in very soft water.