REYPRO TR mulch for white asparagus

REYENVAS SA

The Rey Pro TR is a new generation mulch designed to reduce harvesting frequency with white asparagus while increasing the volume and quality of the asparagus harvested at each session. In this way we aim to provide a solution to the problems of labour cost and availability for this crop.

ReyPro TR is a 75 cm hemmed mulch film made of LDPE and biopolymer co-extruded using the latest 7-layer technology from Reyenvas. Its biodegradable outer layer degrades after about 12 weeks, revealing the underlying white plastic surface necessary for the thermoregulatory effect during the season.

Its reduced thickness and high extensibility makes it possible to simulate an environment for the asparagus similar to the one it has underground. When the asparagus comes into contact with the plastic, the low weight of the mulch and its extensibility allow the asparagus to continue to grow up to 15 cm above the ridge of the mound with no risk of the tips breaking. The plastic stretches at the point of contact. The biodegradable outer layer breaks off and reveals the white PE layer below. This avoids the risk of the asparagus heads burning.

The use of resistant and large sized varieties is recommended with this mulch: Daleza is the one that produced the best results.

With traditional mulching and management, asparagus must be harvested around every 2 days. With the ReyPro TR, it can be harvested every 4 to 8 days, depending on the weather conditions. The number of harvesting sessions for the asparagus is divided by 2 or 3 during the campaign. A larger quantity is thus harvested by workers at each session.
Productivity per hectare per worker increases and the quality of the asparagus improves (larger size).

Mulching thus makes it possible to:
– Reduce harvesting frequency and thus optimise labour costs
– Harvest a larger quantity of higher quality asparagus at each session (more kg/hour per worker).
– Be compatible with a fully automatic harvesting system in the long term, if the farm envisages this solution and once the machines are fully operational