Plastic mulches can provide vegetable growers with earlier crop maturity, better yields and quality, improved disease, insect and weed control, and more efficient fertilizer and water use. The downside of using mulches is the high cost of installation and removal and disposal at the end of the season. A partial solution to this problem has been the development of degradable mulches, which can be left in the field at the end of the season, eliminating removal costs.