Factors studied

Positive effects

Negative effects

- Reduction in the number of passages for weeding and crop protection.

- Technique easy to master.

- Adaptation of successions so that the plot is free at least one month before the establishment of the culture.

- Need for at least 2 months for the technique to be effective.

- The cover is amortized over one crop cycle.

- Necessary investment: solarization cover, greenhouse cover, soil preparation time, watering cost and time, material cost, removal and laying time, maintenance weeding time and cost).

- Less income due to the immobilization of the plot and therefore the impossibility of cultivating while the plastic film is present.

- Effective against many weeds.

- Destruction of certain soil pests (pupae, larvae, nematodes), Ralstonia solanacearum not completely eradicated (however the population
decreases markedly for the time of a crop cycle of 6 months).

- Can be used in all types of soil.

- No delay before recultivation.

- Technique usable in organic farming.

- "Starter" type side effect observed on eggplant in Guyana due to the mineralization of organic matter and microbial biomass on the surface 

- Not very effective against deeply buried weed seeds and against vegetatively propagated weeds.

- Fewer residues of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides.

- Preservation of the useful fungus Trichoderma spp. (and surely other species) no doubt thanks to encysted forms of resistance.

- Non-selective technique: possible negative impact on soil fauna.

- Risk of uncontrolled destruction of the tarpaulins if there is no possibility of inexpensive collection.

- Increase if the placement of plastics is mechanized.