Efficiency of inorganic and organic mulching materials for soil evaporation control

•Effectiveness in soil evaporation reduction of different mulching materials.•Use of microlysimeters to measure soil evaporation under field conditions.•Positive linear relationships between soil evaporation and soil water content.•Soil mulching is inefficient in reducing evaporation in low-frequency irrigation.•Plastic film, vine residues and pine bark were effective for evaporation control. Soil evaporation is an important component of the water balance in irrigated agriculture. Mulching can be an effective technique to reduce soil evaporation but its efficiency depends on meteorological conditions and the characteristics of the different mulching materials. The objective of this work was to assess the effectiveness of inorganic (plastic) and organic (pine bark, vine pruning residues, geotextile, and wheat straw) mulching materials for soil evaporation control during the energy-limited and falling-rate evaporation stages. Soil evaporation rates (ER) were quantified through consecutive weighings of initially wet soils placed in trays in the laboratory and in microlysimeters in the field. ER depended on meteorological and experimental conditions, stage of evaporation and type of mulching material. In the falling-rate stage, ERs decreased linearly (p