| Abstract: In order to investigate the effects of different mulching methods on soil physical properties, soil available nutrients and potato yield, potato cultivar 'Zaodabai' was used as experimental material, treatments such as conventional open ground (control) and ordinary polyethylene plastic film, biodegradable membrane and straw stalk were set up, and the soil moisture content, pH value, nutrient content in different growth periods and potato yield were compared. The results showed that straw mulching had the best effect on water retention. Biodegradable membrane mulching and straw mulching could improve soil fertility at the later stage of potato growth, especially in the biodegradable film mulching. Almost all available nutrient indexes of biodegradable membrane mulching were higher at the maturity stage than those of other treatments, the contents of soil organic matter, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, available phosphorus and available potassium were increased by 7.49 g/kg, 23.00 mg/kg, 11.0 mg/kg and 26.0 mg/kg compared with the control, respectively. In terms of cost and benefit, the benefit of the staw muching was 22.2% lower than that of the control due to the abundance of small potatos, the benefits of ordinary polyethylene mulching and biodegradable mulching were increased by 29.7% and 24.2% compared with the control, respectively. In conclusion, both ordinary polyethylene membrane mulching film and biodegradable membrane mulching could improve yield and benefit of potato, but biodegradable membrane mulching could improve nutrient status of soil and reduce environmental pollution, which had more popularization value. |