NZ517454A - Ground cover comprised of a white pigment reflective material that allows part transmission of radiation of 800- 2500 nm - Google Patents

Abstract

Described is a reflective plant treatment material that reflects at least 55% of solar radiation. It comprises at least one pigment and having high reflectance of UV (280- 400 nm), visible (400-700 nm) and near infrared (700-800 nm) radiation, but allows at least part transmission of radiation of 800-2500 nm. The use of the material to encourage plant and/or fruit development is also described.

Description

517454 517^5 A INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE OF N.Z. 2 6 FEB 2002 RECEIVED NEW ZEALAND PATENTS ACT, 1953 No: Divided out of No. 335641 Date: Dated 19 November 1997 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION PLANT TREATMENT MATERIAL AND METHOD We, JONATHAN DALLS TOYE, a New Zealand citizen of Old Railway Road, Kumeu, Auckland, New Zealand, do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: (followed by page la) PLANT TREATMENT MATERIAL AND METHOD TECHNICAL FIELD The invention relates to plant treatment materials used to promote growth, and development of cultivated plants.

BACKGROUND ART One approach to promoting plant growth and development is to place ground covers over the ground adjacent or near to the plant. These covers have been made with a variety of materials such as paper, plastic and organic plant materials e.g bark or straw. The materials may contain in addition to the base material, compounds such as pigments and dyes that also impart specific properties to the materials. Use of such 15 covers gives a number of. benefits including conserving soil moisture and controlling weed growth. Also, depending on the nature of the covers, light useful to the plants' environment may be reflected back upwards to the plant Currently known important ground covers are as follows: Clear unpigmented plastic ground cover; Black pigmented plastic ground cover; Brown pigmented plastic ground cover; Green pigmented plastic ground cover; Red pigmented plastic ground cover; White pigmented plastic ground cover; White unpigmented plastic ground cover; Silver pigmented plastic ground cover; Silver metallised plastic ground cover; The clear, black, brown and green plastic ground covers warm the soil. -la- The red pigmented ground cover is designed to influence plant phytochromes that influence plant morphology.

Hie white pigmented and unpigmented plastic ground covers look to increase reflected 5 light into the plant canopy. White pigmented ground covers are produced from plastic polymer pigmented with the white titanium dioxide pigment. Unpigmented white ground covers are produced by flattening many microfibres into a continuous sheet.

The silver pigmented and metallised plastic ground covers look to increase reflected 10 light into the plant canopy. Silver pigmented ground covers are typically made from metal particles (commonly aluminium) placed into or onto plastic polymer. Silver metallised ground covers are produced from depositing a thin layer of metal (commonly aluminium) onto a plastic film or sheet, in a vacuum - vacuum metallising.

Paper or wood fibre based ground covers are based on their weed suppression and moisture retention properties, and are not highly reflective.

Generally in the design of a specific ground cover for a certain situation the greater the number and degree of the influences the ground cover can have on the plant or 20 crop environment, the greater the total benefit or performance of the ground cover.

The crop species and variety, the plant component intended for harvest, the plant's physical environment and the plant's biological environment all influence the type of ground cover most preferred for a specific cropping situation. For example if soil 25 warming is a limiting growth factor, then ground cover that assists soil warming will be preferred, or if production of anthocyanins for fruit coloration is critical then reflection of light of the correct wavelengths to increase anthocyanin production will be preferred.

In many cases to achieve one of the preferred benefits with known ground covers requires the compromise of another possible benefit. The applicant has now found 517^ that by using ground covers with particular reflectance and transmission properties unexpectedly good performance may be obtained.

It is an object of the invention to provide plant treatment materials and/or methods giving an enhanced environment for the plant leading to improved plant production and/or quality or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.

In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a reflective plant treatment material which reflects at least 55% of solar radiation in the UV (about 280-400 nm) range, which reflects more solar radiation than it transmits and absorbs in the UV, visible (about 400-700 nm) and near infrared (about 700-800 nm) ranges, and which transmits at least 5% of solar radiation in the range about 800-20000 nm. Preferably the material allows at least part transmission of radiation most of the wavelength range 2500-25000nm including all of the range 4100-6100nm. The material has a reflectance of at least 11% over the range 280-400nm, of at least 15% over the visible wavelengths and at least 10% over the range 700-800nm. In addition it has a transmittance of at least 4% over the range 1001-1650nm, at least 2% over the range 1651-2500nm and at least 1% over the range 4100-6100nm.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a woven reflective plant treatment material having high reflectance of solar radiation in the UV, visible, and NIR ranges, which is woven from a majority of tapes of a plastic material containing at least 10% w/w of a white pigment. (followed by 3a) 517454 For many preferred plant materials, more preferred plant materials and most preferred plant materials the reflectance and transmittance values are as in the relevant columns of Tables 1 and 2 respectively.

TABLE 1 - REFLECTANCE VALUES OF PREFERRED PLANT TREATMENT MATERIALS Total Reflectance Wavelength (nm) Preferred More Preferred Especially Preferred Most Preferred Most Especially Preferred 280-300 13-86% 23-86% 27-86% 37-86% 37-80% 301-360 12-90% 23-90% 33-90% 41-90% 41-83% 3a (followed by 4) WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/00157 361-380 13-90% 23-90% 37-90% 51-90% 51-84% 381-420 17-90% 29-90% 43-90% 51-90% 51-84% 421-700 37-90% 37-90% 44-90% 54-90% 54-84% 701-1000 -89% 29-89% 40-89% 47-89% 47-82% 1001-1640 24-90% -90% -90% 42-90% 42-80% 1641-2200 -93% 18-93% 24-93% 24-93% 24-76% 2201-2500 -96% -96% -96% 17-96% 17-72% TABLE 2 - TRANSMTTTANCE VALUES OF PREFERRED PLANT TREATMENT MATERIALS Transmittance Wavelength (nm) Preferred More Preferred Especially Preferred Most Preferred Most Especially Preferred 280-300 0-87% 0-77% 0-75% 0-63% 0-63% 301-360 0-88% 0-77% 2-67% 2-59% 3-59% 361-380 0-87% 0-77% -63% -49% 8-49% 381-420 0-83% 0-71% 6-57% 6-49% 11-49% 421-700 7-63% 7-63% 9-56% 9-46% 12-46% 701-1000 9-75% 9-71% 11-60% 11-53% 14-53% 1001-1640 7-76% 7-70% -65% -58% 17-58% 1641-2200 4-85% 4-82% 7-76% 7-76% 12-76% 2201-2500 1-95% 1-90% 1-85% 1-83% 4-83% 4100-6100 1-95% 1-95% 1-95% 1-95% 1-90% 8100-10100 1-95% 1-95% 1-95% 1-95% 1-90% For the purposes of this specification reflectance and transmittance properties of a plant treatment material are as determined for the material before any field use and 5 the reflectance values are for material without any air gaps, holes, slits or openings greater than 0.8mm in or between the material. The reflectance and transmittance values occur at each wavelength at lnm intervals across all of the range of wavelengths listed unless otherwise specified.

Reflectance and transmittance values are those obtainable when measured as detailed in Example 28 for reflectance and transmittance as specified in System One and transmittance in System Three.

Preferably the plant treatment material is a ground cover in the form of a sheet e.g. sheets prepared from extruded film. One preferred form is a sheet formed from woven tapes. Preferably the sheets do not have gaps, holes, slits or openings greater than 5mm in or between the material so as to minimise unwanted plant growth through the sheets of material.

Preferably the plant treatment material comprises a plastic (including plastic polymers derived from cultivated plant materials) more preferably polyolefins such as polyethylene, polypropylene or mixtures thereof. Ethylene alpha-olefin and polyolefin elastomers are also preferred. Certain plastics are particularly useful when present as minor components. Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), Ethylene butyl acrylate (EBA) and 25 Ethylene methyl acrylate (EMA) are useful for imparting elasticity. Polyesters may be present as a UV absorbing component and Polystyrene, Styrene-butadiene (SB), Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), Styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN), Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polycarbonate are useful as dye carriers. These plastics are also useful in other aspects of the invention. Starch 30 and other plant polymers are often useful components to increase biodegradability.

Alternatively the plant treatment material may compris^^a|erj^w(^jfo 5.4 ulose fibre, starch based polymers, casein, latex or in any combination of the above and/or with petroleum derived plastic polymers.

In accordance with a third aspect of the invention there is provided a method of producing a woven reflective plant treatment material including the steps of: providing an extrudable resin comprising a polyolefin and at least 10% w/w of a white pigment admixed with the resin, extruding a film from the resin formulation, cutting the film into plastic tapes, orienting the plastic tapes to increase the strength of the tapes or alternatively orienting the film before cutting the film into tapes, and weaving the woven reflective plant treatment material from at least a majority of said plastic tapes.

In certain preferred embodiments of the invention, at least one pigment is a white pigment Preferably the white pigment is chosen from zirconium, strontium, barium, magnesium and calcium pigments. Neodymium, tin, titanium and zinc pigments are (among others) useful in the invention usually as co-pigments. For example titanium dioxide is useful for reducing reflectance of UV light but by itself results in plant treatment materials that have UV reflectance that is insufficient to gain the benefits of the invention. Zirconium dioxide, magnesium zirconate, calcium zirconate, strontium zirconate, barium zirconate and zirconium silicate, calcium carbonate, barium sulphate, magnesium oxide, strontium carbonate and barium carbonate and mixtures of these pigments are preferred pigments. Barium titanate, magnesium titanate, strontium titanate, neodymium titanate, tin oxide, titanium dioxide, titanium oxide, zinc oxide, zinc sulphide and zinc sulphate are included among other pigments useful in the invention. Especially preferred pigments are zirconium dioxide, barium sulphate and calcium carbonate, with calcium carbonate being most preferred.

Preferred ground covers of the invention containing white pigments include 5-75% (preferably 5-50 especially 5-30 most preferably 5-25%) of calcium carbonate, barium sulphate or, magnesium oxide or mixtures of these, with calcium carbonate especially preferred. It is also preferred to additionally include 1-5% of zirconium dioxide, magnesium zirconate, calcium zirconate, strontium zirconate or mixtures of these zirconium containing pigments.

In other preferred embodiments of the invention, at least one pigment is a metallic pigment, preferably chosen from aluminium, magnesium, nickel; silver, tin and zinc, with aluminium- being most preferred. Copper may also be used. In these embodiments the metallic pigment does not form a complete barrier to light.

In preferred embodiments of the invention there is provided a mono-orientated or biaxially orientated reflective material comprising a polymer or polymers and at least one metallic or one substantially white pigment, that when mixed with the polymer(s) to form a polymer/pigment mix, that when extruded and mono-orientated and/or 10 biaxially-orientated provides increased reflectivity relative to the same material without mono-orientation or biaxial-orientation of the polymer and pigment(s) mixture.

The effect of this orientation is marked where without the orientation the polymer/pigment mixture has a relatively low opaqueness but on orientation the 15 material is now thinner but the opaqueness is greatly increased.

Preferably the pigment that shows this reflectivity increase, when present in a polymer/pigment mixture that is mono-orientated and/or biaxially-orientated is a substantially white pigment, more preferably a metal salt or oxide. Most preferably 20 the material is made from a polyolefin containing a white pigment, preferably calcium carbonate that has been uniaxially or biaxially orientated to create microvoid cells that assist with the development of the material's reflectance and transmittance properties. For many applications mono-orientation is preferred with tapes being stretched to a length of at least 5 times greater. The orientation of the polymer/pigment mixture 25 also assists the development of thermic properties of the material.

A particularly preferred pigment for use in this aspect of the invention is blanc fixe, a precipitated form of barium sulphate obtained from manufacturing. The pigment is preferably processed to a fine micron size in the range 0.05 to 10 microns.

WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/D0157 Another particularly preferred pigment for use in this aspect of the invention is calcium carbonate, as a mineral obtained from mining or as a precipitate from manufacturing. The pigment is preferably processed to a fine micron size in the range 0.05 to 10 microns preferably 0.5-3 microns, most preferably 0.7-1.0 micron. The 5 mineral form is currently preferred.

In other preferred embodiments of the invention the mono-orientated or biaxially orientated reflective material comprises a metallic pigment (eg an aluminium pigment) showing a reflectivity increase or orientatioa In these embodiments the metallic 10 pigment does not form a complete barrier to light. For example the metallic pigment may be present as platelets allowing at least some wavelengths to pass through the material between the platelets. The metallic particles are aligned substantially parallel to the surface of the material and/or to create microvoids and/or macrovoids that assist with the development of the material's reflectance and transmittance properties.

The creation of the voids due to the orientation of the polymer/pigment combination is assisted by the type of polymer or polymers. The use of homopolymer propylene and/or random co-polymer of propylene and/or ethylene/propylene block co-polymer and/or co-monomer of ethylene and/or ethylene alpha-olefins and/or single site 20 catalyst polyolefins and/or combinations of these polymers are particularly effective for the creation of the voids.

The production of polyolefin polymers based on what has been termed single site catalyst, or metallocine catalysts allow control over polymer architecture and are 25 preferred polyolefins for orientation purposes.

A reflective plant treatment material comprising polymer(s) and at least one substantially white pigment that when mixed with the polymer(s) to form a polymer/pigment mixture, that when extruded and mono-orientated or biaxially-30 orientated provides increased reflectivity relative to the same material without moho-orientation or biaxial-orientation of the polymer(s) and pigment(s) mixture may be WO 98/21935 e PCT/NZ97/D0157 manufactured by treating a thick and wide plastic tape containing a pigment in a form allowing mono-orientation by stretching the tape to decrease its thickness and width and orientate the'polymer(s) and pigment(s) mixture.

The development of this enhanced reflectivity of the polymer(s) and pigments) mixture is not limited to tapes. It can be also achieved by the mono-orientation of cast extruded film as a sheet. Additionally it can be also developed in blown film which is biaxially orientated and can also have greater orientation in one of the two orientation directions. This blown film can later be further orientated either mono-10 orientated or biaxially orientated.

The advantage of large aluminium platelets is that they have a higher percentage of reflected light as specular or direct light.

A reflective plant treatment material may be manufactured by a method comprising the placement of aluminium or other metallic pigment into polymer(s) with subsequent orientation by methods analogous to those described above for polymers comprising substantially white pigments. Maximisation of the reflectivity of metallic pigments with minimal "greying" or absorption of visible light is achieved using grades of aluminium 20 pigments with high reflectivity of visible light, preferably having mean particle size of 10-500 microns, more preferably 20-200 microns most preferably 30-150 especially 40-80. ST 460 from Silberline Manufacturing US is a preferred aluminium pigment for this purpose. A loading of this pigment in the range 10-3500 microns (preferably 0.5-6% more preferably 1-4% by weight) is preferred for many applications. The 25 disadvantage of large sized pigments is that to obtain good coverage or opacity in the plastic film requires greater concentration of pigment. Aluminium pigments as flakes or platelets may be placed into polymer and the polymer/pigment mixture is then orientated such that the platelets are aligned along the orientated plastic film. This orientation maximises the coverage obtainable from the pigment and assists the 30 economic use of the larger and/or expensive specialized aluminium pigments and the use of lower levels of pigmentation generally. The use of platelets of aluminium * allows the development of air pockets around the platelets, adding to the thermic properties of the resulting material. This is particularly the case for mono-orientation of tapes used for a woven type ground cover. The mono-orientation gives enhanced alignment of the aluminium or metallic platelets/flakes. In this embodiment dyes and 5 UV absorbers may be included in the tapes without substantial diminution of the specular nature of the reflected light. Combining the metallic pigments with the 280-800nm reflecting white pigments used in the invention within the same tapes is not preferred as those white pigments will decrease the specular content of the reflected light.

In some preferred embodiments of the invention the reflectance of the plant treatment material for wavelengths in the range 350-800mn is greater than 25%, preferably greater than 40%. In other preferred embodiments, the reflectance in that wavelength range is greater than 25%, preferably greater than 40% for the base pigment(s) of the plant treatment material, but this is modified at some wavelengths by additional pigment(s)/polymer(s). For many uses which are not adversely affected by high reflectance of wavelengths below 350nm the range for reflectance greater than 25% (or 40%) is usefully extended to 320-800nm, 300-800nm, or 280-800nm. Whether this is beneficial depends on factors such as type of crop, as is discussed below.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the plant treatment material further comprises at least one additional layer or layers of material coated onto one or both surfaces of the material comprising further polymers and pigments to modify the reflective, transmission and absorbent properties of the ground cover.

In further preferred embodiments of the invention additional pigments are included in the plant treatment material in the same layer as the pigments that when mixed with the polymer(s) to form a polymer/pigment mixture and extruded and mono-orientated, and/or biaxially-orientated provide increased reflectivity relative to the same material without mono-orientation or biaxial orientation of the polymer(s) and pigment(s) mixture.

A ground cover of the invention may be a sheet prepared from extruded film that may have one or more layers which may have different polymers and/or pigments/dyes combination.

In other preferred embodiments the sheet is prepared from tapes that are woven together. The tapes may be made from different combinations of polymer and/or pigments/dyes to impart various combinations on the resulting sheets' reflectance and transmittance properties.

The separation of different polymer and/or pigments is a useful design feature in that it allows the separation of different polymer and/or pigments in that it allows separation of different polymer and/or pigments that if mixed together produce a less desirable effect For example, radiation, in particular visible light (400 - 700nm), from the sun on a cloudless day is the prominent form of direct light On striking a white surface the reflected light is scattered into predominantly diffuse light In contrast, if the direct light strikes a metallic surface such as aluminium, the reflected light has a much larger amount of direct light Direct light has the advantage of travelling further than diffuse light but it has the disadvantage in that it can be reflected out past the plant to be lost for any plant benefit A high proportion of direct light can also lead to high concentration? of light in localised areas of leaves and fruit This can lead to high temperatures and/or very high light levels that can cause sunburning and/or leaves to stop photosynthesising.

A combination of direct and diffuse light is considered by the applicant superior for some plant crops.

The mixing of white pigments and metallic pigments leads to the result of reducing tiie direct light reflected by the metallic component Hie separation of white and metallic WO 98/21935 * PCT/NZ97/00157 components produces a plant treatment material that has more superior features from some crops than if mixed together or provided singularly.

The separation of the different polymer and/or pigments/dyes can also have 5 application across the width of the ground cover. This has application where it is desirable to vary the reflectance and/or transmittance properties across the ground cover. For example in an orchard situation with fruit trees, the cover that is in or nearest to the centre of the inner tree row area could have more direct light while the ground cover under the tree has more diffuse light This would potentially give more 10 optimum use of incoming solar radiation.

The separation of different pigments and/or dyes and/or polymers can be achieved in a number of ways.

For woven material this can be achieved by having the components separated into individual tapes. Thus when the tapes are woven together, the individual components come together to make a composite material to give a combined effect of both of these specific reflectance and transmittance properties.

Thus the warp tapes (lengthwise direction) could be one component for example aluminium pigmented tapes and the weft tapes (crosswise direction) white tapes containing calcium carbonate that is orientated to generate microvoids. By weaving these two types of tapes together we can achieve a material with reflective and transmittance properties that are a composite of the two individual tapes.

Variations can be created with the above two types of tape by instead of placing all of the aluminium tapes into the warp, part could be placed into the weft and vice versa for the white tapes. By varying these arrangements we can obtain a range of materials with varying reflectance and transmittance properties.

WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/00157 For example if the warp tapes were aluminium tapes alternated with white (polymer and calcium carbonate that has been orientated) tapes then the same for the weft we would have a material that was a combination of 25% white on white, 25% white on aluminium, 25% aluminium on white and 25% aluminium on aluminium. If the 5 aluminium tapes are constructed to give high transmittance of solar radiation in the daytime and moderate to high transmittance of infrared radiation of soil warmth at night time thus we would have a material to transfer daytime warmth to night time. (This would benefit frost prone regions). This material would have different reflectance and transmittance properties from a material woven where the aluminium 10 tapes were all in the warp and white tapes were all in the weft.

Being able to alter the architecture or construction of the cover we are able to create a material for specific plant cropping situations. Additional variation can be obtained to a woven product by coating the woven material with a layer or polymer and/or 15 pigments and/or dyes. The coating layer on one or two sides will be adding an additional component to the woven material to influence the reflectance and transmittance. Additionally it may be added to influence the water and water vapour movement through the material.

Separation could also be achieved by producing (two or more mixes) of extruded tapes, such that separate mixes are put through the same die head simultaneously but joined only at the surface.

Alternatively, a woven material could be printed on one or more sides to achieve 25 separation of the mixes.

Alternatively, a woven material could have a combination of part or complete coating and/or printing to achieve the separation of the mixes.

Printing of the mixture or mixtures could also be done in strips along the length of the material to achieve mixture variation across the width of the material.

WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/00157 For a film material, the separation of the pigments and/or dyes and/or polymers can be achieved in a number of ways, as follows: Co-extruded film (two or more layers) can produce layers of film joined at the surface 5 but without mixing. This would achieve separate of the mixes.

Alternatively a film, (single or co-extruded) could be printed on one or more sides to achieve the separation of the mixes.

Printing of the mixture or mixtures could be done in strips along the length of the material to achieve variation across the width of the material. The extrusion could also be done like this.

As an alternative to printing a layer, in particular a metallic layer such as 15 aluminium, the layer could be applied to the extruded film (single layered and co-extruded) by vacuum metallising whereby the metallised layer is applied not as a continuous layer such that it does not cover 100% of the film or woven base/layer material.

Alternatively the metallised layer is applied uniformly across the base layer and then 20 it is treated in such a way that they continuous metallised layer is partly removed to render it incomplete. It then could have further layers added to it, if required, to form the end material.

Ground covers that use a complete metallic layer have some disadvantage in that the 25 metallic layer can induce excessive concentrations of reflected solar radiation in a plant's canopy that can have visual sunburning and/or have plant photosynthesis being partly stopped or reduced in efficiency.

The metallic layer also tends to restrict soil warming by not allowing any significant 30 transmittance of radiation through the material, in fact soil cooling can be in effect.

* PCT/NZ97/00157 By presenting the metallic layer as an incomplete layer such that it covers only 1-97% preferably 2-80%, more preferably 5-50% we have a layer that can have the influence of the metallic layer plus the adjacent layer. This layer could have a number of properties as an unpigmented polymer or partly pigmented polymer, or a fully 5 pigmented polymer layer. Preferably the non-complete layer is coated onto one surface of a substantially white material of the invention described above. For example, a base layer containing mono-orientated barium sulphate can be printed with a coating in a regular pattern such that 50% of the surface is coated. If the coating was by printing with aluminium, this would result in a ground cover material having 10 portions showing the characteristics of the aluminium coating (reflection of specular light, and reflectance of the infra-red while the remainder of the material showed the reflectance and transmission characteristics of the base layer). Instead of printing the aluminium, it could be 50% metallised directly or applied by laminating a 50% metallised plastic film or aluminium pigments incorporated in a plastic polymer(s) 15 coating layer to give a 50% coverage. In the case of laminating with a 50% metallised plastic film or with a coating layer containing aluminium pigments, the aluminium forms an incomplete layer while the plastic carrier forms a complete physical layer. In other embodiments of this aspect of the invention the incomplete coverage of metallic pigments (eg aluminium) is applied onto white pigmented materials that are 20 UV absorbers like titanium dioxide ground covers or to clear, or green coloured or paper ground covers. Silvet 460 from Silberline Manufacturing (USA) is a preferred aluminium pigment for this purpose.

The incomplete layer can be made in a number of ways such as a partial metallised 25 layer or a partial pigmented layer.

The partial metallised layer is produced by restricting the complete coverage of the metallising metal or partial removal after metallising.

PCT/NZ97/D0157 The partial pigmented layer is produced by adding the concentration of metallic pigment to the ink or in the polymer system so that in printing or extrusion the coverage is incomplete.

Alternatively a complete layer of the metallic pigment could be added as an ink that is printed only on a part of the surface or part of the layer is applied via a pigment in a coating or layer.

For a woven material if only some of the tapes in one woven direction are aluminium 10 or the tapes contain in incomplete layer of aluminium then we will have an incomplete layer.

The use of the metallic component in the material is used particularly to generate a proportion of direct light. The metallic component is preferably aluminium and is 15 provided as a vapour in the vacuum metallising application or as a pigment and added via an ink system or into a polymer.

In the case of a metallic pigment system, the choice of the pigment with a large particle size is preferred. The smaller the particle size the greater the percentage of 20 particle edges and hence the greater the diffuse and/or metallic greying effect.

The larger metallic pigments (10-3500 micron mean particle size preferably 1-500 micron, more preferably 40-80 micron) may be presented as platelets (where their length is many times their thickness) which when introduced to the material via the 25 printed ink or as a pigment into the polymer they can be induced to favour the alignment of the platelet so that the long side of the platelets parallels the surface of the material to maximise the reflective surface from the metallic particle.

The nature of the ink application system and the extrusion and/or the orientation of 30 the polymer/pigment mixture assists this parallel alignment.

WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/00157 The metallic pigments tend to align in the parallel direction but there is a variation in the alignment such that the reflected light is scattered in many directions to the surface. This feature is advantageous to minimising the effect that can occur from metallic materials that tend to concentrate the reflected solar radiation into locations 5 that can cause sunburning on the plant's leaves and/or fruits or effects not so visibly obvious such as the stopping of photosynthesis in large or localised areas of the plant's canopy.

One feature of the invention in contrast to known silver ground covers containing 10 aluminium is that the reflecting layer allows at least partial transmission of wave lengths of 800-25000 nm. The partial transmissibility of wavelengths in the range 800-2500 allows measurable soil warming, relative to a silver aluminium pigmented plastic ground cover. Of course if the required soil warming can still be obtained by having partial aluminium coating it can be useful to use partial aluminium coating to obtain 15 some of the benefits of the reflectivity of aluminium. The partial transmissibility of wavelengths in the range 2500-25000 nm is to an extent allow re-radiation of heat from soil to air particularly at night sufficient to allow soil heat to move upwards into the plants' environment relative to a silver aluminium pigmented ground cover. It also allows heat radiation from the air to the soil, in situations where the air temperature 20 is greater than the soil temperature.

One other feature of the invention in contrast to the known silver ground covers containing aluminium is that the reflecting layer may allow at least partial (even though quite low, but higher than aluminium) transmission of wavelengths 400-800 nm. 25 Wavelengths in this range (400-800nm) are useful for soil warming and in particular for plant photosynthesis. Allowing a slight transmission of light in the 400-800 nm light region allows plant growth beneath the ground cover. This plant growth is restricted by the physical barrier of the ground cover and the limited amount of photosynthetically active light it is receiving. Because of this the plant growth beneath 30 the ground cover does not become excessively vigorous to compete with the plant above the ground cover, that is the primary cultivated plant. The presence of plants, WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/Q0157 beneath the ground cover in some situations is considered beneficial, as it allows the maintenance of the soil structure, the input of organic material into the soil beneath the ground cover, and keeps the cover slightly off the soil surface. For many applications the preferred transmission percentages are in the range 2 to 30% 5 preferably 5 to 20%, more preferably 10-20%. In certain embodiments some transmission of wavelengths 280-400 nm is also used as this is useful for soil warming.

For desirable wavelengths, ground covers preferably reflect or transmit most of the light for benefits to plants via increased light or by soil warming. For these 10 wavelengths absorption by the ground cover is kept to a minimum In preferred embodiments of the invention, the ground cover further comprises an additional layer of material coated onto one surface of the material comprising further pigments and/or polymers to modify the reflective and absorbent properties of the 15 material. This embodiment is particularly preferred when the further pigments and/or polymers are incompatible with the pigments in the base layer or need to be incorporated into a different polymer type, e.g. polyester v polypropylene or where the incorporation into a different layer aids in the reduction of manufacturing costs.

In other preferred embodiments of the invention further pigments and/or polymers are included in the ground cover in the same layer as at least one pigment having high reflectance of UV, visible and near infrared radiation, but allowing at least partial transmission of radiation of 800-2500 nm and 2500-25000nm.

In a further embodiment the base layer is clear plastic film printed with white pigments covering 1-97% of the area and/or printed with aluminium 2-80%.

Pigments which may be used to modify the reflection and transmission of the base layer of the material include white pigments with varying degrees of UV reflection or 30 absorption. Pigments having the potential for this function include titanium dioxide, barium titanate, lithium titanate, magnesium titanate strontium titanate, potassium WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/D0157 titanate, bismuth titanate, zinc oxide, zinc sulphate and zinc sulphide and mixtures of these pigments.

Additionally the use of specific plastic polymers to influence the reflection and 5 transmission properties of the ground cover can be used. For example polyester which is an absorber of the shorter wavelengths of UV and/or EVA, a transmitter of short wave infra red and a block to long wave infra red radiation, can be incorporated into the system to modify the reflection and transmission of the base layer. In some cases the modifying polymer can be added to the base layer polymers directly rather than 10 to the coating or top layer.

The specific choice of the base white and regulating white can also influence plant growth regulation systems. Other pigments may be included to further influence the balance between the plant growth regulating systems cryptochromes, phytochromes, the 15 UV photoreceptor, and the balance between the UV and blue light reflected to the plants. Pigments useful for this function are typically coloured rather than white and may include: Inorganic pigments such as cobalt aluminium oxide, cobalt (aluminium, chrome) 20 oxide, titanium (nickel, antimony) oxide and titanium (chrome, antimony) oxide; or Organic pigments/dyes such as quinacridone red, carbazole dioxazine violet, isoindolinone yellow, copper phthalocyanine blue and dichloroquinacridone magenta, perylene violet, penindo maroon, perrindo red, indofast brilliant scarlet, quindo violet, 25 palomar green or Micas coated with metal oxides or Metals such as aluminium, zinc, tin and copper or A mixture of these pigments.

Fluorescent dyes and pigments may also be used. These have particular potential application to influence the cryptochrome, phytochrome and the UV photoreceptor and tfae UV/blue light balance by absorbing light in one wavelength band and emitting it as another wave length band more useful in the desired application. Those useful for this function include Lumogen green, Lumogen orange, Lumogen red, Lumogen violet, Allplast Red SB and Macrolex Fluorescent Red G. Garobrite OB 5 is also useful for this function. Lumogen red, Allplast Red 5B and Macrolex Fluorescent Red G are preferred.

Additional pigments to affect the reflective and transmission properties are: Magnesium silicate, aluminium silicate, silica, aluminium potassium silicate, calcium 10 metasilicate, sierra chlorite, calcined clay, clay and metaphosphate are particularly relevant for influencing the infrared wave lengths. Carbon black may also be used to affect the transmission and reflective properties.

Particularly preferred pigments for modifying the properties of the base white pigment 15 are ultrafine titanium dioxide, ultrafine zinc oxide, Macrolex Fluorescent Red G, Lumogen Red, Allplast Red 5B, Cobalt Aluminium Oxide, Cobalt (aluminium chrome) oxide, and combinations of these pigments.

The use of a combination of plastic polymers may be used to aid in the stability 20 and/or solubility of some pigments or dyes in the system. Where the pigment/dye is not stable in the base polymer(s), a polymer(s) is added that aids this stability of the pigment/dye in the system.

The pigments/dyes can also be applied via an ink system that also avoids the addition 25 to the polyolefin system.

The woven material produced from tapes and/or threads does offer the possibility of adding the pigments/dyes to the total system without using the polyolefin polymer.

In some cases these pigments/dyes, to impart their effect on the system are only required as a smaller part of the total system.

Some of the polymers such as polystyrene, styrene butadiene, aciylonitrile - butadiene -styrene, styrene - aciylonitrile, polyethylene terephthalate, polymethyl methacrylate and polycarbonate are useful polymqps for these purposes. Polyamide may also be used.

It is also preferred to add one or more stabilisers to ensure the material has an economic life. Possible stabilisers but not exclusively are as follows: AO-1, Irganox 1010, Irganox 1035, Irganox 1076, Irganox 1330, Irganox 1425 WL, Irganox 3114, Irganox MD 1024, Irgafos 168, Irgafos P-EPQ, Irganox PS800, Tinuvin 10 326, Tinuvin 327, Tinuvin 328, Tinuvin 492, Tinuvin 494, Irganox PS802, Tinuvin 622, Tinuvin 765, Tinuvin 770, Tinuvin 791, Chimassorb 81, Chimassorb 119, Chimassorb 944, Chimassorb N-705, Ni-Quencher and Calcium stearate.

In addition to the polymers/pigments/dyes and stabilisers the material could have 15 other additives such as slip, antiblock, antistatic, processing aids, antislip, algaecides, bactericides, fungicides, pesticides, fertilisers and the like added to enhance its performance in manufacturing and application.

As mentioned above, in relation to aluminium, compounds may be added to increase 20 reflection of infra-red radiation. Aluminium, zinc, tin and copper have this function. Aluminium is a preferred material for use in additional coatings, particularly partial coatings. Aluminium reflects specular light. The advantage of specular light in horticulture is that it travels further up into plants than diffuse light. Thus adding a partial coat of aluminium on top of a white base layer, not only aids infra-red 25 regulation, but also gives a mixture of specular and diffuse reflected light. These benefits are also available using zinc, tin and copper or other metals. Aluminium can be printed onto the base layer, metallised directly or added by laminating a 1-97% metallised plastic film. Aluminium can also be incorporated in a polymer coating layer, as a pigment, or a4ded to the system as a pigment to the base layer. If this is 30 done the aluminium is not mixed with white pigments in the same plastic layer or tape, as this would reduce the specular reflected light WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/00157 Ground covers of the invention can be simply prepared by weaving tapes containing, for example zirconium dioxide and barium sulphate. Preferably the tapes are made from polypropylene, polyethylene, or a mixture of these polymers, most preferably polypropylene, prepared by methods known to those skilled in the art. If the basic S film is to be used without the addition of one or more further layers, the thickness is preferably in the range of 5 to 300 microns. The amount of pigment is preferably in the range of 5 to 75% by weight, more preferably 5 to 50% by weight, most preferably 5-30% or 5-25%. The thickness of the base layer containing the pigments reflecting UV, visible and near infrared radiation is preferably in the range of 10 to 200 microns 10 when a further layer containing other pigments is to be coated on to it. The woven material by its construction has space between individual tapes that water and air movement can move through. In some applications this movement is excessive and restriction would be an advantage. Additionally the space is also an opportunity for algae and/or dirt to collect This space can be partly or completely reduced by the application of heat and pressure to the woven material such that the tapes develop adhesion to each other. In this case it is advantageous to mix in the woven material's components that are activated in response to the heat and/or pressure.

Adhesives could also be applied after the woven material is made to assist in the closing of the space between the tapes.

One particular combination that is useful is the addition of an ethylene alpha-olefin to the base polyolefin, (preferably polypropylene or polyethylene). This material is noted for its lower melt temperature (than the polyolefin base) and adhesion properties. When applied in a concentration of 5 - 50% to base polyolefin, then extruded and woven into a material, temperature and pressure may be applied such that the ethylene alpha-olefin adhesion properties are activated, but the temperature 3q and pressure should be insufficient to markedly affect the woven material's base polyolefin.

WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/001S7 In a preferred form of the invention the reflecting tapes are weaved and sealed with a clear polymer coating to prevent algae and dirt gathering in gaps between tapes and to protect the printed or metallised aluminium layer. The polymer coating to prevent the algae and dirt gathering in the gaps between taps may also contain the pigment/dyes to modify the reflected light of the base layer. Then the ground cover material is perforated with the perforations having a diameter of 0.1 to 5mm and a aperture ratio of 0.1 - 10% to provide air and water movement, although for some applications the ground cover is imperforated. Preferably at least some of the tapes are tapes containing mono-orientated polymer/pigment mixture.

The material may (or may not) be perforated to increase the water and air movement through the material. In some cases no perforations are advantageous in others perforations are advantageous.

Some of the materials, depending on construction methods used, will not require any perforations. If perforations are made they could be from drilled or punctured holes 1 - 20mm in diameter or slits from 1 - 20mm or even to 200mm, in length.

Some of the woven materials will not require any perforation as due to their 20 construction they allow direct water and air movement through the material.

An alternative manufacturing method to alter permeability for the woven material is to vary the tightness of the weave. A woven product from tapes is woven such that the tapes are placed together without any tape folding this generates a moderately loose 25 weave that is readily permeable. As the number of weft tapes increases per length of the warp tapes, they are placed together tightly, some folding may occur, this decreases the permeability of the material This method allows a range of permeability to be achieved to match the need of the 30 horticultural situation.

WO 98/21935 PCT/N297/00157 Another alternative is to coat the tapes but allow the edges to remain uncoated. This allows the ground staples or pins placed through the material into the soil to pass through this uncoated area. This allows the coated material more flexibility like an uncoated woven material. This has particular advantage when the ground cover is 5 driven over by a tractor or the like. On coating, a woven ground cover loses some of the flexibility that it had when uncoated. This loss of flexibility is noticeable when a tractor drives over the woven ground cover .that is coated. The tractor tends to pull and dislodge the ground staples or pins that hold the ground cover to the ground. This problem is reduced if a coated ground cover is uncoated around where it is pinned to 10 the ground.

Ground covers of the invention with mono-orientated polymer and pigment can be simply prepared from tapes containing, for example 1-50% finely ground precipitated barium sulphate and preferably tapes are made from polypropylene, polyethylene or 15 a mixture of these polymers, most preferably polypropylene, prepared by methods known to those skilled in the art The tapes may then be stretched at a temperature of 100°-150°C to decrease the thickness and width of the tape to a quarter to a tenth of the original width. Stretching at about 120°C is appropriate for polypropylene. If the basic film is to be used without the addition of one or more further layers, the 20 thickness is preferably in the range of 5 to 300 microns. The amount of pigment is preferably in the range of 5 to 75% by weight, more preferably 5 to 50% by weight most preferably 5-30% or 5-25% by weight. The thickness of the layer containing the orientated pigment polymer and pigment mixture is preferably in the range of 5 to 200 microns when a further layer containing modified pigments is to be coated on to it. 25 In a preferred form of this embodiment of the invention, the reflecting tapes are weaved and sealed with a clear polymer coating, then perforated with the perforations having a diameter of 0.1 to 20mm and a aperture ratio of 0.1 -10% to provide air and water movement, although for some applications the ground cover is imperforated.

Mono-orientation and/or biaxial-orientation of the polymer and pigment mixture can have a very striking effect on the reflecting properties of the material. When barium WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/Q0157 sulphate is used as a pigment in the polymer/pigment mixture that is mono-orientated and/or bi-axially orientated the reflectance may be increased by up to 3-5 times. More modest increases in reflectance may be obtained when mineral or coarser barium sulphate is used. With different materials the gains from mono-orientation or biaxial-5 orientation vary.

Ground covers containing 5-30% calcium carbonate, magnesium oxide or barium sulphate are especially preferred. Inclusion of 1-5% of a pigment chosen from zirconium dioxide, calcium zirconate and magnesium oxide as a second pigment is also 10 preferred for many applications.

Of course many pigments by virtue of their structure do not give any significant increase in reflectivity when the polymer/pigment mixture is mono-orientated or biaxially-orientated. The commonly used white pigment titanium dioxide is an 15 example of such a pigment.

The present invention allows design of ground covers with a great range of properties to provide for different horticultural applications. The white pigments/dyes used may give reflection of solar radiation including the UV spectrum but the UV absorbing 20 pigments/dyes and polymers may be used to regulate the reflectance in the part of the UV spectrum. Mono-orientation or biaxial-orientation of polymers and polymer pigment combinations provides an option for increasing reflectivity. The white base material may be partially covered with pigments such as aluminium to regulate reflection/transmission of the infra-red and/or to obtain mixed reflection of specular 25 and diffuse light The white pigmented material or white pigmented material partially covered with pigment such as aluminium may be coated with plastic/polymer layers containing UV absorbing pigments/dyes or polymers to regulate UV reflectivity of the base material. Any of the materials described above may be coated with material absorbing in parts of the 280-800 nm range to regulate the reflectivity of the base 30 materials and to influence the plants light environment and potentially influence the plants growth/development and its environment. Furthermore any of the materials so far described can also be coated with a layer containing fluorescent dyes that alter the wavelengths of the reflected light to influence the plant growth/development and its environment Alternatively the aluminium pigments, UV absorbing pigments/dyes, 280-800 nm absorbing coloured pigments/dyes, fluorescent pigments/dyes and particular plastic polymer mixtures could be added to the base material. They can be added in such a way that they are added to one tape or film as a mixture or as different tapes woven into one woven film or as film with different sections of each component via cast 10 extrusion such that the ground cover varies across its width and/or in the layers as in a coextruded film. The mixture of aluminium pigments with the white base pigments is not preferable, as the white pigments decrease the specular reflection of the aluminium pigment The UV absorbing coloured or fluorescent pigments/dyes could be mixed with the aluminium pigments.

A particularly useful combination is to have a base layer containing one or more white pigments coated with an infra-red specular layer comprising a partial coating of metal pigments and on top of that a second coating comprising materials chosen from UV absorbers, coloured pigments/dyes, and fluorescent pigments/dyes, and also mixtures 20 thereof. This second coating is used to influence plant growth and development by vaiying the portions of light of different wavelengths in the 280-800 nm region. One of the advantages of having the metal layer beneath the coating containing the pigments/dyes that influence the 280-800 nm region, is that the influence is borne as specular reflected light to the plants and its environment An alternative is to mix the 25 metal pigment with UV absorbers coloured pigment(s)/dye(s) and/or fluorescent pigment(s)/dye(s) into one film or tape to obtain a combined diffuse/specular reflected light to influence plant growth and development.

In an especially preferred embodiment of the invention the plant treatment material 30 is such that the component that is made of a continuous sheet that is excluding any WO 98/21935 t PCT/NZ97/00157 air gaps or openings in the material, has the following reflection and transmission properties: Total reflectance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of UV from 280 - 300 5 nm of 11 - 90%, preferably 30 - 90% or most preferably 40 - 90% Total reflectance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of UV from 301 - 400 nm of 11 - 90%, preferably 40 - 90% or most preferably 55 - 90%.

Total reflectance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of visible light from 401 - 700 nm of 15 - 90%, preferably 40 - 90% or most preferably 60 - 90%.

Total reflectance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of radiation from 701 -1100 nm of 10 - 90%, preferably 30 - 85% or most preferably 50 - 85%.

Total reflectance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of radiation from 1101 -1650 nm of 10 - 90%, preferably 30 - 85% or most preferably 50 - 85%.

Total reflectance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of radiation from 1651 -20 2250 nm of 10 - 85%, preferably 25 - 80% or most preferably 40 - 75%.

Total reflectance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of radiation from 2251 -2500 nm of 10 - 75%, preferably 15 - 70% or most preferably 25 - 60%.

Total transmittance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of radiation from 280 - 300 nm is 0 - 80%, preferably 2 - 50% or most preferably 2 - 30%.

Total transmittance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of radiation from 301 - 400 nm is 0 - 80%, preferably 4 - 50% or most preferably 4 - 30%.

Total transmittance (diffuse apd specular light/radiation) of radiation from 400 - 700 nm is 5 - 80%, preferably 10 - 60% or most preferably 10 - 40%.

Total transmittance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of radiation from 701 5 -1100 nm is 5 - 80%, preferably 10 - 65% or most preferably 10 - 45%.

Total transmittance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of radiation from 1101 - 1650 nm is 5 - 85%, preferably 10 - 65% or most preferably 10 - 45%.

Total transmittance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of radiation from 1651 - 2250 nm is 5 - 85%, preferably 5 - 60% or most preferably 10 - 50%.

Total transmittance (diffuse and specular light/radiation) of radiation from 2251 - 2500 nm is 5 - 85%, preferably 5 - 60% or most preferably 5 - 40%.

Total radiation (diffuse and specular radiation combined) is measured in an integrating sphere with the light source 6 degrees off the perpendicular, to the sample.

In the ranges defined the reflectance or transmission falls in between the upper and 20 lower percentage figure, and is not outside this range for any of the wavelength thus specified.

In an especially preferred embodiment the plant treatment material is a ground cover comprising woven tapes of two different types - white and aluminium pigmented tapes. 25 For example the weft and. warp tapes may be different. In one direction the tapes may contain 10-30% calcium carbonate, barium sulphate or magnesium oxide or mixtures of these, preferably calcium carbonate. In the other direction the tapes contain aluminium platelets as a loading of 0.5% - 5%. A preferred material for constructing the ground cover of this embodiment is polypropylene and it is preferred that the tapes 30 in both directions are mono-orientated. The aluminium platelets preferably have* an average particle size in the range 10 - 500 microns. UV stabilisers are usefully included in these ground covers. The especially preferred particle sizes in this embodiment for the white pigments are in the range 0.3 to 3 microns. The plant treatment material of this embodiment is especially preferred for use with apples, grapes, stonefruit, kiwifruit, persimmons and citrus.

The following examples further illustrate practice of the invention.

EXAMPLES Example 1 - Woven Ground Cover with Mono-Orientation This example used a 15% loading of calcium carbonate in 50 micron orientated polypropylene tapes that are woven into a film.

Polypropylene granules plus mineral calcium carbonate (ground to 1-10 microns) are used to prepare tapes which were subsequently elongated to mono-orientate the pigments. Before orientation mean tape width and thickness were 12mm and 0.23mm respectively. After stretching these values were 3.2mm and 0.07 mm. 1. Tape and Weaving Production Details Machine: Lizenz, Windmuller & Holscher Tape Format: Warp -120 to 200 - Tex with widths of 2-4mm Weft -120 to 200 - Tex with widths of 2-4mm Fabric Construction: 30 to 40 threads per dcms for warp and weft. 25 Fabric Weight: 70 to 160 gms/m2 2. Tape Production Extruder Die Temperature: 200 - 300°C Oven Temperatures: 150°C - 180°C 30 Godet Unit Speed: 20m/min -170 m/min Melt Pressure: 120 to 180 kPa Melt Temperature: 250°C 3. The- woven tape was then coated with low density polyethylene using caste extrusion: Machine: Lenzing extrusion coating machine Preheat Setting: 150 190% Extruder Die Temperatures: 200°C - 300°C Temperatures: 210 - 270°C Coating Weight: 20 - 50 gms/m2 10 Final Fabric Weight: 90 - 210 gms/m2 4. Fabrics containing barium sulphate (blanc fixe) and fabrics containing magnesium oxide may be prepared as described above for the calcium carbonate using the same pigment loading.

The ground cover reflects UV radiation, 280-400nm and radiation from 400-800nm.

It allows transmission, to a certain degree, of infra-red radiation 800-2500 nm and also of 2500-25000 run.

Example 2 - Woven Ground Cover with Surface Coating A18% loading in 50 micron orientated polypropylene tapes that are woven into a film. The pigments used are 25 Zirconium oxide 3% Calcium carbonate 15% The material is then coated with a 25 micron layer by a cast extruder of polypropylene with a loading of 2% of an aluminium pigment.

WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/00157 This ground cover reflects UV radiation 280-400nm, and radiation from 400-800nm. The radiation is made up of diffuse and specular radiation. The tapes are sealed by the coating and may require perforations to allow water and air movement through the ground cover.

The ground cover allows partial transmission of infra red radiation 800-2500nm and also of radiation from 2500-25000nm.

Example 3 - Properties of Mono-Orientated Ground Cover The properties of the film base before coating produced in Example 1 with Barium sulphate were measured as for System Two of Example 28. Fig 1 shows the reflectance of the material of Example 1. Figure 2 shows the reflectance of the same composition prepared as in Example 1 except that the material was cast extruded. Comparison of 15 the figures shows that reflectance is strikingly enhanced from 280-840 mm by use of mono-orientation of the polymer and pigment mixture.

Example 4 - Woven Ground Cover Woven from Different Tapes The orientated polypropylene weft tapes from Example 2 are produced with 1.5% loading of aluminium pigment instead of the white pigments. The material is woven such that the warp tapes are white tapes as from Example 2 and the weft tapes alternate between the white tapes of Example 2 and the aluminium tapes. This ground cover has reflective properties similar to Example 2 but without the coating to 25 give improved flexibility and drape characteristics.

Example 5 - Woven Ground Cover from Different Tapes plus Red Coloration The ground cover is constructed as in example 4 but also with the addition of 30 fluorescent dye (Macrolex Fluorescent Red G) at a concentration of 0.02%, to both the white and aluminium tapes. This ground cover has the properties of example 4 but with increased reflected red light (and decreased green light) to influence plant phytochromes.

Example 6 - Woven Ground Cover Material from Different Tapes plus a Blue 5 Coloration The ground cover material is constructed as in example 4 but also with the addition of a cobalt aluminium oxide (Lightfast Blue 100) at 02% concentration to both the white and aluminium tapes. This material has the properties of Example 4 but with 10 decreased reflection of red light to influence plant phytochromes.

Example 7 - Woven Ground Cover Material from Different Tapes plus a UV Absorber The ground cover material is constructed as in example 4 but with the addition of a ultra fine zinc oxide at a 0.4% concentration, to both the white and aluminium tapes. This material has the properties of example 4 but with decreased UV reflection to enable the ground cover to be used on UV sensitive plants.

Example 8 - Properties of Mono-orientated Tapes The properties of further film bases without coating were measured as for system Two of Example 28. These were prepared in a manner analogous to those of Example 1 except that the pigment composition differed. The reflectance of each is shown in 25 Figures 3-7.

Figure 3 - Calcium carbonate mono-orientated tapes 15% Figure 4 - Zirconium Oxide 3% plus Barium sulphate 8% oriented tapes Figure 5 - Barium Sulphate 8% - orientated tapes plus Ultrafine Titanium dioxide at 0.4% Figure 6 - Barium sulphate 8% - orientated tapes plus Lightfast Blue 100 at 0.2% plus Magnesium titanate 3% 32 WO 98/21935 * PCT/NZ97/00157 Figure 7 - Barium sulphate at 8% - orientated tapes plus Macrolex Fluorescent Red G at 0.02% Example 9 This example uses a 25% loading of calcium carbonate at an average particle size of 0.9 microns in 70 micron thick, 32 mm wide mono-orientated polypropylene tapes that make up the weft tapes in a fabric construction of 30 weft tapes per 10cm. The warp tapes contain aluminium platelets with an average particle size of 70 microns at a 10 loading of 1%. The tape thickness is 60 microns with 2.6mm wide mono-orientated polypropylene. There are 38 warp tapes per 10cm of fabric. Each tape has the addition of UV stabiliser at 0.35% of Tinnuvin 770 and 0.4% of Chimassorb 944.

Example 10 This example uses the addition of 30% loading of calcium carbonate with an average particle size of 1 micron in 60 micron thick polyethylene film of a width suitable for its end use. The film is blown (biaxially formed) and is mono-orientated after extrusion.

The film is then printed with aluminium platelets with an average size of 70 microns such that 0.6 grams of the aluminium platelets are applied per square metre of film. The ink is a two-pot epoxy system.

The film is UV stabilised with Chimassorb 944 at 02%.

Example 11 This example uses white tapes with 25% loading of calcium carbonate at an average 30 particle size of 0.9 microns in 70 micron thick mono-orientated polypropylene tapes and separate tapes with aluminium platelets with an average particle size of 70 PCTZNZ97/D0157 microns at a loading point of 1%. The aluminium tape thickness is 60 microns and is mono-orientated polypropylene. The material is then constructed with the waip made up of the aboye tapes, alternating the tape type, aluminium, white, aluminium white etc. This is also done for the weft tapes. Each tape has the addition of UV 5 stabiliser at 0.35% of Tinnuvin 770 and 0.4% of Chimassorb 944.

Example 12 This example is the same as Example 9 but eveiy 6th weft tape is made up from aluminium with an average particle size of 70 microns at a loading of 1% in polypropylene. The tape thickness is 70 microns, 32mm wide and is mono-orientated.

Example 13 This example uses a 7% loading of titanium dioxide, plus 10% of calcium carbonate (with an average particle size of 0.9 micron) into polyethylene film. The film is blown, (biaxially formed), then printed with aluminium platelets, average particle size 80 microns, at an addition of 0.6 grams per square metre. The ink is a two-pot epoxy system.

Example 14 This example is the same as Example 13 but using only titanium dioxide at 12% without any addition of calcium carbonate.

Example 15 This example uses polypropylene tapes with 20% calcium carbonate (with a mean particle size of 2.7 microns) that have been mono-orientated. The tapes are used in 30 the waip and the weft of the woven product with every 6th weft tape being made' of aluminium platelets of a mean particle size of 18 microns at a 2% loading.

Example 16 As for Example 15 but without the aluminium tapes. Instead, the aluminium is placed into a coating of polypropylene cast on to the woven product at a weight of 25 grams 5 per square metre with a 2% aluminium content The aluminium platelets have a mean particle size of 70 microns.

Example 17 (T534) Tapes are produced from homopolymer of propylene (grade JY630, from Montell) with addition of 15% Calcium Carbonate (grade Millicarb-OG, from Pluss-Stanfer • AG).

Warp tapes are produced at 2.8mm wide 40-60 micron thick, weft tapes at 3.2mm wide 15 40-60 micron thick. Tapes are woven with construction of 38 warp tapes and 30 weft tapes per O.lmetre of the material.

Woven material is then coated with polypropylene (grade WG341C, from Borealis) at 25 grams per square metre with the addition of 2% of Aluminium platelets (grade 20 Silvet 460-30-E1, from Silberline).

Material is perforated with four 5mm drilled holes every square metre of the material.

Example 18 (EU) Tapes are produced as for Example 18 (without the coating) with the addition of 1% Calcium Zirconate average micron size 22 micron, (grade 117, from Ferro Corporation) to the weft tapes. Also every sixth weft tape has the Calcium Carbonate replaced with 1% of Aluminium platelets (grade SSP-950-20-C, from Silberline).

Example 19 (JJ) WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/Q0157 Tapes are produced from homopolymer of polypropylene (grade JY630, from Montell) with the addition of 25% Calcium Carbonate, via a polypropylene masterbatch (grade MPPNA-194, fromr-Clariant).

Warp tapes are produced at 2.8mm wide with a 135tex, weft tapes at 3.2mm wide with a 195tex. Tapes are woven with a construction of 37 waip tapes and 30 weft tapes per 0.1 metre of the material.

A stabilisation system is added to the tapes.

Example 20 (JS) Tapes are produced as for Example 19, but the warp tapes only contain Aluminium platelets at a 2% level (grade Silvet 460-30-E1, from Silberline).

Example 21 (SQ Clear low density polyethylene film 25 micron thick is extruded without the addition of pigments or dyes and then it is printed with a two pot ink system (grade Gemini 20 from Pacific Inks) with 24% level of Aluminium platelets (grade Silvex 460-15-D, from Silberline).

Example 22 ( Jts ) Low density polyethylene film 50 micron thick produced from low density polyethylene masterbatch of Calcium Carbonate (grade MLLNA-198, from Clariant) and Titanium Dioxide as a blown film. This with some biaxial orientation.

The level of Calcium Carbonate is 20% and the Titanium Dioxide is 3.5% in the final 30 film.

WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/00157 The film is then printed with a single pot ink system (grade Quasar, from Pacific Inks) with 20% level of Aluminium platelets (grade Silvex 460-15-D, from Silberline).

Example 23 Film is produced on a blown film extruder at 150 micron thick using a low density polyethylene masterbatch of Calcium Carbonate (grade MLLNA-198, from Clariant) to give a level of 25% of the pigment using a low density polyethylene resin (grade 5100, from Dow) The filw is then uniaxially orientated in the long length or machine direction of the film to reduce its thickness to 50 micron.

Material is perforated with four 5 mm drilled holes every square metre of the material. Example 24 Film is produced on a cast film co-extruder at 200 micron thick, using a low density polyethylene masterbatch of Calcium Carbonate (grade MLLNA-198, from Clariant) 20 for one layer (100 micron) and the other layer using Aluminium platelets (grade Silvet 460-30-E1, from Silberline) The film is biaxially orientated to produce a film 65 micron thick.

Material is perforated with four 5 mm drilled holes every square metre of the material.

Example 25 - REFLECTIVE GROUND COVER TRIALS - with Metallised Aluminium Polymer Covers Large and medium scale trials were conducted at a number of sites in 1995 and 1996 in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, to evaluate the potential response of ground covers to FC17NZ97/Q0157 increase fruit production using prior art Soltec foil reflective (Paper Coaters, NZ) ground covers. The results are shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3 - TRIAL DETAILS AND RESULTS Location A B B C D Apple Variety Gala Fuji Pink Lady Gala Sunrise Rootstock MM 106 MM793 MM26 MM793 MM106 Year Planted 1976 1987 191 1989 1995 Row Spacing .2m .4m 4.5m 4.5m 4.0m Tree Spacing 3.3m 33m 1.8m 2.5m 2.0m Row North-South West-East North-South North-South North- Orientation South Cover 26 Nov 1995 27 Nov 1995 27 Nov 1995 26 Nov 1995 Nov Applied 1996 Cover Width 1.05m 1.05m 0.75m 1.05m 1.05m (each side of trees) No Trees 84 48 140 424 260 Treated No Control 85 52 92 60 265 Trees Full Bloom 26 Oct 23 Oct 28 Oct Oct 23 Oct Average Fruit Size (g) Treated Trees 153.0 209.0 211.4 143.0 - Control Trees 161.0 198.0 191.4 155.0 - Total Fruit Harvested(kg) Treated Trees - - - - 7318 Control Trees - - - - 6650 Percent 6.6 .6 .5 7.7 .1 Increase in Production or Fruit Size 9 PCT/NZ97/00157 The increase in fruit size was measured from pack house data (the packhouse supplied the average fruit weight from the control and treated harvested trees which were 5 graded separately) with the exception of the Gala trials located at Sites A and C which were measured from fruit size samples at harvest. The Sunrise fruit size was not measured directly but the trees were harvested and the total weight of fruit harvested was recorded for each treatment. All data was measured and supplied by the grower's packhouse or the grower directly.

The trend was indicating that an application of metallised aluminium reflective ground cover in late November (30-40 days after full bloom) is giving a 5 -10% increase in production. Blush colour was also improved to a vaiying degree at each site, up to a maximum amount as for the comparative reflective ground cover trial in Gisborne, 15 New Zealand on Royal Gala.

Application before late November was not useful. When tested there were problems with the metallised aluminium ground covers suppressing soil warming. This may have been the cause of the collapse of the young spring growth. It may also have been due 20 to direct light. In late November mean soil temperatures is at 17°G at 0.1m, with 2°C suppression from the aluminium covers this results in a mean of 15°C which is considered a minimum temperature for good plant root activity.

PCT7NZ97/D0157 Example 26 - COMPARATIVE REFLECTIVE GROUND COVER TRIAL Background Trial established on apple, Royal Gala variety on MM106 rootstock, planted with rows running North-South. Trees planted in 1991 at 5 metre row spacing with 3 metres between trees. Tree trained as centre leader type tree with axis pruning system.

Reflective ground covers were applied on 1 January 1997 as 1 metre wide covers on each side of the trees. The covers were placed on to two adjoining rows with 8 trees in each row to give 16 trees in total for each replication. There were two replications per treatment.

Each set of replications was adjacent in the row direction in the following pattern down the row.

Control Replication One SS Replication One T534 Replication One Control Replication Two SS Replication Two T534 Replication Two Treatments were 1 Control - (No cover, herbicide strip) 2 SS - Metallised aluminium polymer ground cover of the prior art. 3 T534 - Oriented weave of polypropylene/Calcium Carbonate coated with polymer/aluminium platelets of Example 17.

Harvest occurred on the two adjacent rows of each replication of each treatment such that fruit was weighed at each of the 5 harvests. Fruit was picked on the basis that it had at least a minimum of 66% blush colour.

After the trail harvest pick on 7 March 1997 the remaining fruit on the trees that failed to reach 66% blush colour was harvested to determine the unharvested fruit. This plus harvested fruit gave total yield per treatment.

The results are shown in Tables 4 and 5. A higher proportion of the crop is ready for harvest at an early date when T534 ground covers are used PCT/NZ97/D0157 Table 4 - Kg Fruit Harvested Harvest Date Treatment Control SS T534 6 Feb 97 ll 32 2.9 13 Feb 97 23 3.9 .5 22 Feb 97 19.8 26.7 33.8 3 March 97 36.0 41.9 36.0 7 March 97 22.1 .5 132 Total Harvest 83.4 912 91.4 Unharvested 16.6 8.8 8.6 Total Yield 100.0 100.0 100.0 Harvest Date Treatment Control SS T534 6 February 1997 116.5 106.0 1003 13 February 1997 83.1 1303 188.9 22 February 1997 712.6 886.6 1163.0 3 March 1997 1298.8 1389.6 1240.5 7 March 1997 799.1 5142 454.1 Total Harvest 3010.1 3026.7 3146.8 Table 5 - Percentage of Fruit Harvested at Each Harvest Date WO 98/21935 PCT7NZ97/D0157 The results show the benefit from using the metallised aluminium polymer ground cover to assist fruit colour. This results is consistent with other trials.

The T534 is an example of the invention and is able to produce a similar, if not 5 slightly better colour development than the SS material.

The SS material with its higher total reflectivity would have perhaps been expected to be better that TS34 but this is not the case. The reason may relate to the fact that T534 reflects greater amounts of the very short wavelengths and/or its reflective 10 pattern of the diffuse and direct light gives a superior reflected light pattern for fruit blush colour development The T534 model that allows soil warming gives the advantage that it can be applied in early spring while the SS material would not be able to be applied in early spring 15 without causing problems of collapse of the young shoots or the suppression of growth, due to its soil warming restriction properties and/or the type of reflected light.

Example 27 - REFLECTIVE GROUND COVER TRIAL 1997 Background.

WO 98/21935 PCT/NZ97/00157 With Example 26 demonstrating successful colour development, the material was then ready to be tested with application at the end of flowering. Material used for this trial was EU (see Example 18) To obtain two sets of data in one year a trial was established in South Tirol in northern Italy, on Mondial Gala (a strain of Royal Gala) apples.

The trees were on MM9 rootstock, 3 m between rows and 0.75m between trees. The material was 0.75m wide placed on each side of the trees on the 23 April 1997, after 10 the completion of petal fall, 15 days after full bloom. There were 4 replications for the 2 treatments (reflective cover and no cover). With a total of 53 trees in the control or no cover treatment and 51 trees in the trees with the reflective cover. The results are shown in Table 6.

Table 6 - Results of Reflective Ground Cover Trial in Italy Treatment Replication Total Weight (g) No of trees Weight per tree (g) Mean firult weight (g) Percentage of fruit 70% or more blush colour Percentage oT fruit surface with yellow and red colour Percentage of fruit surface with green colour Total No of apples l Control Mean 705292 53 13307 156.5 58.9 93.5 7.0 4510 Cover Mean 832343 51 16320 164.3 69.0 95.5 .0 5074 Treatment Replication Fruit Diameter % <65mm % 65mm-f % 70mm+ % 75mm+ % SOmm-f % 88mm+ % gomm-f Control Mean 6.6 34.5 26.8 24.7 .2 1.7 0.5 Cover Mean 4.2 26.7 29.3 29.2 7.4 2.3 0.9 Treatment Replication Colour Data % Ground Colour % Red % Dark Red >60% Blush Colour >80% Blush Colour Control Mean 32.5 39.0 28.5 77.8 48.7 Cover Mean 27.8 38.5 33.8 85.2 61.1 The typical production for Royal Gala in this part of Italy is around 55 tonnes per canopy hectare. In this year of 1997 the control yielded 59.1 tonnes per canopy hectare while the treated trees were able to yield 72.5 tonnes per canopy hectare. This 22.6% Increase in production is significantly greater than the 5 -10% achieved with 5 application of reflective covers at day 30 - 40 after full bloom.

This increase is considered to be due to the ability to be able to apply the reflective cover 15 days after full bloom rather than 30 - 40 days after full bloom. Also the different type of light from the new art with its particular pattern and type of direct and l o diffuse light may be giving this superior result.

The new reflective cover is able to allow soil warming or to not restrict soil warming to occur in addition to the increase in reflective light. The reflective properties of the cover with a combination of direct and diffuse reflected light also demonstrated in this 15 trial its ability to Increase fruit blush colour development.

EXAMPLE 28 - RADIATION MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS System One - Reflectance and Transmittance 280-2500 nm Monochromator System The high accuracy spectrophotometer system is based around aim focal length Czemy Turner monochromator. The monochromatic light output from the monochromator is then collimated and directed by mirrors to various measurement setups. This system will 10 operate over the wavelength range of approximately 200 nm to 2500 nm and the bandwidth is variable up to 3 nm.

| Diffuse Reflectance The difiuse reflectance was measured using an integrating sphere with the sample port tilted by 6° to the incident light so that the specular reflected light as well as diffuse reflected light off the sample is included in the measurement. The sphere surface is coated with pressed halon powder and has an internal diameter of 7 cm. The entrance and sample port diameters are 1 cm. The detectors used are a silicon photodiode over 20 the wavelength range 280 nm to 1100 nm and a lead sulphide detector over the wavelength range 800 nm to 2500 nm. The monochromatic light was focused onto the sample using an off axis parabolic mirror of focal length 35 cm, f/15.

Four samples are mounted on a pneumatic driven sample changer along with a halon white reference sample and a black cone.

The samples were measured using an integrating sphere with the sample at 6° to the incident light so that specular as well as diffuse reflected light was measured. The incident light beam onto the sample filled an area 5 mm x 4 mm and for the woven 30 samples was centred at the intersection of two warp and two weft strips of the weave. The light beam had a bandwidth of 2.4 nm.

Diffuse Transmittance The diffuse spectral transmittance was measured using an integrating sphere with the sample port normal to the incident light. The sphere wall is coated with pressed halon powder and has an internal diameter of 18 cm and the sample port is 4 cm diameter. The 47 SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) PC17NZ97/00157 sample is mounted to cover half the sample port of the sphere and is near the focal point of the light from the monochromator. The sphere and sample are translated across the light beam so the light either enters the sphere unimpeded or is transmitted through the sample into the sphere. This setup corrects for the effect of the sample being part of the 5 sphere wall.

The detectors are the same as used for the diffuse reflectance setup.

The samples were mounted at the entrance port of an integrating sphere and normal to 10 the incident light beam which had a bandwidth of 2.4 nm. The illuminated area at the sample was 7 mm x 5 mm.

^ The spectral difiuse transmittance of the SS sample at wavelengths greater than 1200 nm was too low for reliable measurements. The spectral difiuse transmittance off the MET 15 sample at wavelengths greater than 2000 nm was too low for reliable measurements.

Conditions These measurements were made at a room temperature of 20°C ± 0.5°C.

In each case, an area of the sample to be tested was chosen which visually appeared to be representative of the sample as a whole. The uncertainty at the 95% confidence level in the values of difiuse reflectance, and diffuse transmittance is ±10% of the value or ±0.01, whichever is the greater. i System Two - Transmittance / Reflectance 280-840 nm Measurement is made with a: Varian Techtron Model 6345 UV-Visible Spectrophotometer Difiuse reflectance accessoxy and halon white reflectance standard. Readings taken every 20 nm between 280-840 nm 840-420 nm visible lamp is used 35 400-280 nm only UV lamp is used Beam width is 2 nm 48 SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) PCT/NZ97/D0157 For the transmittance measurement both reflectance standards are left in place. Scan is made first with no sample in holder, then scan with the sample in place. Sample placed into holder in front of the integrating sphere.

For reflectance measurement the instrument is zeroed and then one reflectance standard ■ is removed and replaced with a black light trap. Scan is made with this arrangement, then scan is made with the sample in front of the light trap.

Instrument is zeroed at the following wavelengths for the range of wavelengths in brackets. ) 840 nm (780-840 nm) 700 nm (740-660 nm) 15 600 nm (640-560 nm) 500 nm (540-460 nm) 380 nm (440-280 nm) System Three - Transmittance 2500-20000 nm The infra red measurements were made with a BOMEN DA8 Fourier Transform Infared spectrophotometer (FTTR) in the 2.5 mm to 22 mm region. Between 2.5 mm and 4 mm, the FTIR was fitted with a Quartz-Halogen source, a CaF2 beam-splitter and an InSb detecter. In the region from 4 mm to 22 mm, a Globar source was used together with a KBr beam-splitter and an MCT (Mercury Cadmium Telluride) detector.

All measurements were made in vacuum with a spot size of 1 mm. The transmitted beam was captured and fed into the detector by a mirror of diameter 50 mm and focal length 75 mm (f/1.5). The incidence angles for the transmittance were kept as close as possible to 30 normal incidence. The transmittance was measured at an off-normal angle of less than 80.

System Four - Transmittance 2500-20000 nm Measurement is made with a: 49 SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) Biorad FTIR - Fourier Transfonn Infra Red Spectrophotometer Model FTS-7 __ Dector DTG5 Sample beam aperture 25 mm diameter This is a single light beam system where the machine records measurements of no sample, then the sample to cover the 25 mm diameter aperture is placed into the machine, measured and the transmittance is measured.

All the data from systems one to four may be presented as a proportion of 1 (i.e. 0.5 reflectance equals 50% reflectance). 50 SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) EXAMPLE 29 - REFLECTANCE AND TRANSMITTANCE DATA Prior Art Material- Description W White Titanium polyolefin cover film WW White Titanium Dioxide polyolefin cover TX SS White unpigmented polyolefin cover (Tyvex) Metallised Aluminium on polymer laminated to polyolefin weave (Soltec foil reflective) MET Metallised Aluminium with polyolefin film backing (Colorup) Invention T534 Polyolefin weave from Calcium Carbonate/polymer orientated then coated with polyolefin polymer and Aluminium platelets (Example - 17 ) EU Polyolefin weave from Calcium Carbonate/polymer orientated with eveiy 6th weft tape pigmented Aluminium platelets (Example - 18) JS JJ Polyolefin weave from Calcium Carbonate/polymer orientated for the weft tapes and Aluminium platelets/polymer orientated for the warp tapes (Example - 20) Polyolefin weave from Calcium Carbonate/polymer orientated (Example - 19) JTS - Polyolefin film from Calcium Carbonate and Titanium 35 Dioxide with Aluminium platelets printed on to the surface (Example - 22) 51 SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) 517454 SC - Aluminium platelets printed on to clear polyolefin (Example - 21) JSS - Polyolefin weave from aluminium platelet/polymer orientated for use in warp and or weft tapes (e.g JS).

TABUS 7 - REFLECTANCE AND TRANSMITTANCE DATA Measurement One Two One Three Four System (see Example 28) Wavelength Reflectance 280-2500nm ReQectance & Transmittance 280-840nm Transmittance 280-2500nm Transmittance 2500-20000nm Transmittance 4000 — 6250nm Material WW Fig 11 - Fig 12 - - TX Fig 11 - Fig 12 Fig 13 - SS Fig 11 Table 8 Fig 12 Fig 14 Table 9 MET Fig 11 - Fig 12 Fig 15 - JS Fig 11 - Fig 12 - - JJ Fig 11 - Fig 12 Fig 16 - JTS Fig 11 - Fig 12 Fig 17 - SC Fig 11 - Fig 12 Fig 18 - T534 - Table 8 - - Table 9 EU - Table 8 - - Table 9 JSS - - - Fig 19 - Figures 8, 9 and 10 respectively show transmittance data for T534, EU and carbon black pigmented polyolefin film respectively. 52 WO 98/21935 PC1YNZ97/D0157 TABLE 8 Percentage Transmission and Reflectance 280-840 nm - measured as for System Two Wavelength Transmission Reflectance nm Sample Sample 88 T534 EU SS TS34 EU 840 3.00E-02 3.90E-01 3.99E-01 6.62E-01 .02E-01 4.89E-01 820 1.20E-02 3.68E-01 3.80E-01 6.86E-01 .06E-01 4.93E-01 800 9.00E-03 3.68E-01 3.78E-01 6.86E-01 .20E-01 .04E-01 780 8.00E-03 3.69E-01 3.80E-01 7.09E-01 .37E-01 .18E-01 760 7.00E.03 3.71E-01 3.81E-01 7.32E-01 .54E-01 .30E-01 740 .00E-03 3.52E-01 3.42E-01 7.34E-01 .38E-01 .44E-01 720 6.00E-03 3.53E-01 3.41E-01 7.48E-01 .49E-01 .51E-01 700 .00E-03 3.53E-01 3.39E-01 7.57E-01 .57E-01 .55E-01 680 .00E-03 3.51E-01 3.37E-01 7.65E-01 .62E-01 .60E-01 660 4.00E-03 3.51E-01 3.34E-01 7.73E-01 .67E-01 .63E-01 640 .00E-03 3.43E-01 3.35E-01 7.54E-01 .65E-01 .51E-01 620 .00E-03 3.41E-01 3.33E-01 7.58E-01 .68E-01 .52E-01 600 .00E-03 3.39E-01 3.31E-01 7.61E-01 .72E-01 .53E-01 580 .00E-03 3.36E-01 3.29E-01 7.62E-01 .74E-01 .53E-01 560 .00E-03 3.33E-01 3.26E-01 7.63E-01 .77E-01 .53E-01 540 .00E-03 3.24E-01 3.09E-01 7.97E-01 .78E-01 .68E-01 520 6.00E-03 3.21E.01 3.05E-01 7.96E-01 .80E-01 .68E-01 500 6.00E-03 3.19E-01 3.02E-01 7.95E-01 .83E-01 .69E-01 480 6.00E-03 3.12E-01 2.99E-01 7.91E-01 .84E-01 .65E-01 460 7.00E-03 3.07E-01 2.93E-01 7.92E-01 .88E-01 .65E-01 440 7.00E-03 2.83E-01 2.89E-01 7.52E-01 .59E-01 .58E-01 420 8.00E-03 2.77E-01 2.84E-01 7.50E-01 .62E-01 .60E-01 53 SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) PCT/NZ97/D0157 400 7.00E-03 2.79E-01 2.73E-01 7.56E-01 .70E-01 .72E-01 380 7.00E-03 2.66E-01 2.66E-01 7.32E-01 .44E-01 .49E-01 360 7.00E-03 2.40E-01 2.44E-01 6.87E-01 .26E-01 .26E-01 340 8.00E-03 2.14E-01 2.32E-01 6.81E-01 4.99E-01 .38E-01 320 7.00E-03 1.66E-01 1.95E-01 6.70E-01 4.45E-01 .11E-01 300 0.005-00 1.49E-01 1.74E-01 6.40E-01 4.253-01 .00E-01 280 0.00E-00 7.60E-02 9.60E-02 4.94E-01 2.72E-01 3.90E-01 54 SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) TABLE 9 - TRANSMITTANCE 4000-6250 nm - Measured as for System Four Sample Wavelength nm 4000 4166 4347 4545 4761 5000 5263 5555 5882 6250 1.40E-04 1.00E-04 1.40E-04 2.10E-04 7.00E-05 1.40E-04 1.00E-04 1.00E-04 7.00E-05 1.00E-04 T534 2.97E-02 4.05E-02 4.86E-02 5.67E-02 7.02E-02 8.64E-02 9.18E-02 9.72E-02 8.91E-02 6.48E-02 EU 3.57E-02 4.82E-02 5.71E-02 6.78E-02 8.21E-02 1.03E-01 1.17E-01 1.07E-01 1.14E-01 8.57E-02 Aspects of the invention have been described by way of example only and it should be appreciated that modifications and additions thereto may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. 56 SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26) 517454

Claims (65)

CLAIMS:

1. A reflective plant treatment material which reflects at least 55% of solar radiation in the UV (about 280-400 nm) range, which reflects more solar radiation than it transmits and absorbs in the UV, visible (about 400-700 nm) and near infrared (about 700-800 nm) ranges, and which transmits at least 5% of solar radiation in the range about 800-20000 nm.

2. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 1 which transmits at least 10% of solar radiation in the range about 800-2500 nm.

3. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in either one of claims and 2 which transmits at least 10% of radiation in the range about 2500-20000 nm.

4. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 1 which transmits at least 15% of solar radiation in the range about 800-2500 nm.

5. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in either one of claims 1 and 4 which transmits at least 15% of radiation in the range about 2500-20000 nm.

6. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 which is a ground cover.

7. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the reflectance and transmittance is shown in the table below: Wavelength nm 280-300 301-360 361-380 381-420 421-700 701-1000 Total Reflectance 23-86% 23-90% 23-90% 29-90% 37-90% 29-89% 57 Transmittance 0-77% 0-77% 0-77% 0-71% 7-63% 9-71% 517454 1001-1640 30-90% 7-70% 1641-2200 18-93% 4-82% 2201-2500 10-96% 1-90% 4100-6100 1-95% 8100-10100 1-95% said reflectance and transmittance values being measured using a high accuracy spectrophotometer system based around a 1mm focal length Czesny Turner monachromator, said reflectance and transmittance values for the above 2500 nm range being measured using a BOMEN DA8 Fourier Transform infrared spectrophotometer in the 2.5 to 25mm region.

8. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the reflectance and transmittance is shown in the table below: Wavelength nm Total Reflectance Transmittance 280-300 27-86% 0-75% 301-360 33-90% 2-67% 361-380 37-90% 5-63% 381-420 43-90% 6-57% 421-700 44-90% 9-58% 701-1000 40-89% 11-60% 1001-1640 35-90% 12-65% 1641-2200 24-93% 7-76% 2201-2500 15-96% 1-85% 4100-6100 1-95% 8100-10100 1-95% said reflectance and transmittance values being measured using a high accuracy spectrophotometer system based around a 1mm focal length Czesny Turner monachromator, said reflectance and. transmittance values for the above 2500 nm range being measured using a BOMEN DA8 Fourier Transform infrared spectrophotometer in the 2.5 to 25mm region. 58 517454

9. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the reflectance and transmittance is shown in the table below: Wavelength nm Total Reflectance Transmittance 280-300 37-86% 0-63% 301-360 41-90% 2-59% 361-380 51-90% 5-49% 381-420 51-90% 6-49% 421-700 54-90% 9-46% 701-1000 47-89% 11-53% 1001-1640 42-90% 10-58% 1641-2200 24-93% 7-76% 2201-2500 17-96% 1-83% 4100-6100 1-95% 8100-10100 1-95% using a high accuracy spectrophotometer system based around a 1mm focal length Czesny Turner monachromator, said reflectance and transmittance values for the above 2500 nm range being measured using a BOMEN DA8 Fourier Transform infrared spectrophotometer in the 2.5 to 25mm region.

10. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the reflectance and transmittance is shown in the table below: Wavelength nm Total Reflectance Transmittance 280-300 40-90% 2-30% 301-400 55-90% 4-30% 401-700 60-90% 10-40% 701-1100 50-85% 10-45% 1101-1650 50-85% 10-45% 1651-2250 40-75% 10-50% 2251-2500 25-60% 5-40% 4100-6100 1-95% 59 8100-10100 5174 1-95% using a high accuracy spectrophotometer system based around a 1mm focal length Czesny Turner monachromator, said reflectance and transmittance values for the above 2500 nm range being measured using a BOMEN DA8 Fourier Transform infrared spectrophotometer in the 2.5 to 25mm region.

11. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10 comprising a white pigment chosen from zirconium, strontium, barium, magnesium and calcium based pigments.

12. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 11 wherein the white pigment is present in an amount of 5-50% w/w.

13. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 11 wherein the white pigment is present in an amount of 10-30%w/w.

14. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 11 wherein the white pigment is present in an amount of 20-30% w/w.

15. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 11 to 14 wherein said white pigment is selected from zirconium dioxide, magnesium zirconate, calcium zirconate, strontium zirconate, barium zirconate, zirconium silicate,, calcium carbonate, barium sulphate, magnesium oxide, strontium carbonate and barium carbonate.

16. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 15 wherein said white pigment is selected from zirconium dioxide, barium sulphate and calcium carbonate.

17. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 16 wherein said white pigment is calcium carbonate.

18. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 11 to 17 wherein said calcium carbonate is in the form of particles of size 0.5-3 microns. 60 5<745

19. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 18 comprising at least one metallic pigment chosen from aluminium, magnesium, nickel, silver, tin and zinc.

20. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 19 wherein the metallic pigment is present in an amount of 0.5-6% by weight.

21. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in either one of claims 19 and 20 wherein said metallic pigment is aluminium.

22. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 21 wherein said aluminium is in the form of aluminium platelets.

23. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 22 wherein said aluminium platelets are platelets of size 10-500 microns.

24. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 11 to 21 wherein said pigment(s) is/are present in a plastics material.

25. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 24 wherein said pigment(s) is/are present in a first layer of a plastics material and wherein an additional layer or layers of a plastics material or materials extends over said first layer and said additional layer(s) contain(s) at least one different pigment which modifies the reflectance, transmittance and/or absorbance properties of the first layer.

26. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 25 wherein said additional layer of a plastics material is applied by coating or laminating over the first layer or by co-extruding the first and additional layers.

27. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 24 to 26 wherein said plastics material is mono-oriented.

28. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 24 to 26 wherein said plastics material is biaxially-oriented.

29. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 24 to 28 wherein said plastic material comprises a polyolefin. 61 517454

30. A reflective plant treatment as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 29 wherein said plastic material is produced from a resin which also includes a UV stabiliser and one or more processing aids.

31. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 24 to 30 which is woven from woven plastic tapes.

32. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 24 to 30 which is a film.

33. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 31 wherein said ground cover is woven from plastic tapes comprising a white pigment and separate tapes comprising aluminium platelets.

34. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 33 wherein said white pigment is calcium carbonate.

35. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in either one of claims 31 and 32 wherein the ground cover has a partial coating of metallised aluminium.

36. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 7 wherein a UV absorbing component is present as an additive in amount that decreases the reflectance at 280-400nm due to the main pigment.

37. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 6 wherein titanium dioxide is present as a pigment in a plastic sheet which has partial coverage of aluminium to an extent of 1-97%.

38. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 31 which comprises a continuous polymer coating over a surface of the material.

39. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 32 which comprises a continuous polymer coating over a surface of the material.

40. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 31 which has been woven from plastic tapes at least some of which have been cut from plastic film material which has, after forming of the plastic film material and before cutting into tapes, been coated with a polymer coating. 62 517454

41. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 24 to 40 which has vaiying water permeability across a transverse dimension of the material.

42. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 41 which is coated with a coating which increases water impermeability along a centre portion of the length of the material.

43. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 42 which is coated over a major portion of a surface of the material except along longitudinal side edges or strips of the material.

44. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 42 which is coated with a coating which increases water impermeability along longitudinal side edges or strips of the material and not along a centre portion of the length of the material.

45. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 38, 39, 40, 42, 43 and 44 wherein said coating has a lower melting point than the layer over which it forms a coating.

46. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 31 wherein the material is woven from woven plastic tapes to which a continuous polymer coating has been applied over at least part of a surface of the material and wherein heat and pressure has been applied to said coating to press the coating into the weave of the material after application of the coating, to increase water impermeability of the material or at least of said part of the surface thereof to which said coating has been applied.

47. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 31, 33 and 34 in which the tightness of warp and/or weft plastic tapes of the woven material achieves a predetermined degree, of water permeability or impermeability through the material.

48. A reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 47 wherein the tightness of the weave of the material over at least part of a transverse dimension of the woven material increases water impermeability of the material over at least part of the transverse dimension of the material. 63 5174

49. A woven reflective plant treatment material having high reflectance of solar radiation in the UV, visible, and NIR ranges, which is woven from a majority of tapes of a plastic material containing at least 10% w/w of a white pigment.

50. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 49 wherein the plastic tapes contain at least 15% w/w of a white pigment.

51. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 49 wherein the plastic tapes contain at least 20% w/w of a white pigment.

52. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 49 wherein plastic tapes contain between 20 and 30% w/w of a white pigment.

53. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 49 to 51 wherein the plastic tapes have been mono-oriented to increase the strength of the material.

54. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 49 to 53 wherein the plastic tapes have been mono-oriented to develop or further develop the reflectance and transmission properties of the material.

55. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 49 to 53 wherein said white pigment is selected from zirconium dioxide, magnesium zirconate, calcium zirconate, strontium zirconate, barium zirconate, zirconium silicate, calcium carbonate, barium sulphate, magnesium oxide, strontium carbonate and barium carbonate.

56. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed "in claim 55 wherein said white pigment is selected from zirconium dioxide, barium sulphate and calcium carbonate.

57. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 49 to 56 wherein said plastic material is a polyolefin. 64 51 745

58. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 57 wherein said plastic material comprises substantially polypropylene.

59. A method of producing a woven reflective plant treatment material including the steps of: providing an extrudable resin comprising a polyolefin and at least 10% w/w of a white pigment admixed with the resin, extruding a film from the resin formulation, cutting the film into plastic tapes, orienting the plastic tapes to increase the strength of the tapes or alternatively orienting the film before cutting the film into tapes, and weaving the woven reflective plant treatment material from at least a majority of said plastic tapes.

60. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 59 wherein plastic tapes contain at least 15% w/w of a white pigment.

61. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 59 wherein the plastic tapes contain at least 20% w/w of a white pigment.

62. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 59 wherein plastic tapes contain between 20 and 30% w/w of a white pigment.

63. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 59 to 62 wherein said white pigment is selected from zirconium dioxide, magnesium, zirconate, calcium zirconate, strontium zirconate, barium zirconate, zirconium silicate, calcium carbonate, barium sulphate, magnesium oxide, strontium carbonate and barium carbonate.

64. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in claim 63 wherein said white pigment is selected from zirconium dioxide, barium sulphate and calcium carbonate.

65. A woven reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 59 to 64 wherein said polyolefin is polypropylene. 65 R ^ 7 J J / A method according to any one of claims 59 to 65 wherein the resin also includes a UV stabiliser and one or more processing aids. A reflective plant treatment material when produced by the method of any one of claims 59 to 65. A method of treating a plant or plants to encourage plant and/or fruit development comprising position eg a reflective plant treatment material as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 58 and 67 in relation to the plant(s) to reflect light on to the plant(s) and/or fruit. A reflective plant treatment material, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. A woven reflective plant treatment material, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. A method of producing a woven reflective plant treatment material, substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings. by tne authorised 66