New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts
Effect of organic mulches and a residual herbicide
on soil bioactivity in an apple orchard
M. J. HARTLEY
New Zealand Pastoral Agriculture
Research Institute Limited
Hawke's Bay Research Centre
P.O. Box 85
Hastings, New Zealand
J. B. REID
New Zealand Institute for Crop & Food
Research Limited
Hawke's Bay Research Centre
P. O. Box 85
Hastings, New Zealand
A. RAHMAN
New Zealand Pastoral Agriculture
Research Institute Limited
Ruakura Agricultural Research Centre
Private Bag 3123
Hamilton, New Zealand
J. A. SPRINGETT
New Zealand Pastoral Agriculture
Research Institute Limited
Grasslands Research Centre
Private Bag 11 008
Palmerston North, New Zealand
Abstract In New Zealand orchards, weed control is usually
achieved with a combination of herbicides and mowing or cultivation.
Alternative strategies (e.g., organic mulches) have been called for, on the
grounds that persistent herbicides may have undesirable effects on non-target
organisms and may leach into the ground water. We compared the effects of
sawdust, straw, compost, and wooldust mulches and the residual herbicide
terbuthylazine on soil respiration, cellulose degradation activity, and
bacterial and fungal biomass in an apple orchard in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.
The control received no residual herbicide or mulch but weeds were checked by
paraquat/diquat or glyphosate. Measurements were made over two growing seasons.
Terbuthylazine application had no detectable effects on CO2 emission or
cellulose degradation activity. Over both seasons, total CO2 emission in the
field was increased by compost. In the summer immediately following mulch
application, sawdust, and straw mulches suppressed CO2 emission from the soil,
but total emission over both seasons was not different from the control. Soil
biomass measurements were only taken from the herbicide, sawdust, and wooldust
plots and the grass inter-row. In general, bacterial and fungal biomasses in
the soil decreased in the order grass > sawdust mulch >= residual
herbicide > wooldust mulch. Cellulose degradation activity was increased by
compost and straw but depressed by wooldust. There was no simple relationship
between respiration and cellulose degradation activity across treatments.
Keywords organic mulches; herbicide; apples; Malus
domestica; soil respiration; microbial activity; cellulose degradation
New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 1996, Vol. 24:
183-190
0114-0671/96/2402-0183 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1996
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (590K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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