Organic amendments initiate the formation and stabilisation of macroaggregates in a high clay sodic soil

Soil Research ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (8) ◽  
pp. 770 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Clark ◽  
P. W. G. Sale ◽  
C. Tang

Subsoil constraints present a substantial problem for crop production in many agricultural regions. In particular, soils in temperate grain production areas of Australia are often poorly structured due to high content of sodic clay. An alternative to the standard practice of addition of gypsum is to incorporate organic amendments deep into the subsoil. An incubation experiment was performed for 174 days using several organic amendments. These consisted of wheat shoots, lucerne pellets, canola and chickpea stubbles, chicken manure, peat, and sawdust. Gypsum, an inorganic amendment commonly applied to sodic soil, was included for comparison. The change over 174 days in soil structural properties was measured using wet-sieving. Formation of slaking-resistant macroaggregates >2 mm was most rapid with ‘green plant material’, wheat and lucerne, while the ‘stubbles’ were markedly slower in obtaining the equivalent level of aggregation. However, the largest growth in aggregates after day 56 was shown by the ‘stubble’ and chicken manure amended soils. The gypsum amendment was not capable of forming large, slaking-resistant aggregates >2 mm; this may be attributed to the inability of gypsum to stimulate soil biological processes. Peat and sawdust failed to initiate slaking-resistant macroaggregates. The study demonstrated that a variety of organic amendments have the ability to improve the physical fertility of sodic subsoil, and in the case of the green plant materials within 1 week of incubation.

HortScience ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 901D-901
Author(s):  
Mark A. Hubbard

College of the Ozarks is a private, liberal arts college in southwestern Missouri, and the Agriculture Dept. has recently begun instituting a variety of horticulture courses in an effort to meet the increasing student interest in horticultural science. The objective is to educate and train students in the horticulture fundamentals and specific production areas (advanced courses). Also, the College is in the process of constructing teaching and demonstration gardens to be used in conjunction with classroom instruction. These gardens will include a plant materials collection and horticultural crop production areas. Additionally, as the College requires that students work part-time at any of several work “stations” on campus, students have the opportunity to gain experience in landscaping or in production greenhouses on campus. Currently, the college has 10,000 ft2 of greenhouse space that is operated for the purposes of producing plants for campus landscaping, maintaining a ≥6000 orchid collection, and producing plants for seasonal sales. The college intends to integrate the classroom instruction, experiences in the teaching gardens, and the required work experiences to provide students with a complete horticultural education. Comments and suggestions for this budding endeavor are highly sought after.


Author(s):  
Beata Kowalska

AbstractVascular wilt diseases caused by Verticillium dahliae Kleb. are difficult to control and lead to increasing losses of many crops worldwide. It can cause disease on not only horticultural crops but also many economically important crops such vegetables, legumes, forest trees, woody and herbaceous plants. Reasons of this situation are various: (i) the specialization of crop production resulted in the accumulation of the pathogen in the soil, especially monoculture production; (ii) the lack of an efficient and safe soil fumigation method; (iii) the production in large amounts of survival structures—microslerotia and melanized hyphae that are resistant to chemical and biological degradation.Due to the lack of effective synthetic agents for eradication of V. dahliae from soil, considerable interest in this paper has been focused on biological control, especially the selection of microorganisms with mycoparasitic activity towards V. dahliae microsclerotia, that can decrease their number in soil. The main attention is paid on the Trichoderma fungi, non pathogenic Fusarium spp., Talaromyces flavus and bacteria Bacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp. and Streptomyces spp. that are discussed in this review. In this work the suppressive effect of organic amendments against this soil-borne pathogen is also mentioned. In addition biofumigation using toxic plant materials, which is an approach to the soil-borne pathogen management could be an effective method to control diseases caused by V. dahliae.


Plants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bushra Niamat ◽  
Muhammad Naveed ◽  
Zulfiqar Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Yaseen ◽  
Allah Ditta ◽  
...  

Soil salinity and sodicity are among the main problems for optimum crop production in areas where rainfall is not enough for leaching of salts out of the rooting zone. Application of organic and Ca-based amendments have the potential to increase crop yield and productivity under saline–alkaline soil environments. Based on this hypothesis, the present study was conducted to evaluate the potential of compost, Ca-based fertilizer industry waste (Ca-FW), and Ca-fortified compost (Ca-FC) to increase growth and yield of maize under saline–sodic soil conditions. Saline–sodic soil conditions with electrical conductivity (EC) levels (1.6, 5, and 10 dS m−1) and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) = 15, were developed by spiking soil with a solution containing NaCl, Na2SO4, MgSO4, and CaCl2. Results showed that soil salinity and sodicity significantly reduced plant growth, yield, physiological, and nutrient uptake parameters. However, the application of Ca-FC caused a remarkable increase in the studied parameters of maize at EC levels of 1.6, 5, and 10 dS m−1 as compared to the control. In addition, Ca-FC caused the maximum decrease in Na+/K+ ratio in shoot up to 85.1%, 71.79%, and 70.37% at EC levels of 1.6, 5, and 10 dS m−1, respectively as compared to the control treatment. Moreover, nutrient uptake (NPK) was also significantly increased with the application of Ca-FC under normal as well as saline–sodic soil conditions. It is thus inferred that the application of Ca-FC could be an effective amendment to enhance growth, yield, physiology, and nutrient uptake in maize under saline–sodic soil conditions constituting the novelty of this work.


2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 539-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inge M. Hanssen ◽  
Moshe Lapidot ◽  
Bart P. H. J. Thomma

Viral diseases are an important limiting factor in many crop production systems. Because antiviral products are not available, control strategies rely on genetic resistance or hygienic measures to prevent viral diseases, or on eradication of diseased crops to control such diseases. Increasing international travel and trade of plant materials enhances the risk of introducing new viruses and their vectors into production systems. In addition, changing climate conditions can contribute to a successful spread of newly introduced viruses or their vectors and establishment of these organisms in areas that were previously unfavorable. Tomato is economically the most important vegetable crop worldwide and many viruses infecting tomato have been described, while new viral diseases keep emerging. Pepino mosaic virus is a rapidly emerging virus which has established itself as one of the most important viral diseases in tomato production worldwide over recent years. Begomovirus species and other whitefly-transmitted viruses are invading into new areas, and several recently described new viruses such as Tomato torrado virus and new Tospovirus species are rapidly spreading over large geographic areas. In this article, emerging viruses of tomato crops are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1669-1680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Steven Andersen ◽  
Laura M. Pepple

Abstract. During the twentieth century, U.S. agriculture strived to achieve increased food production in order to satisfy both local and export demands. In many cases, this led to increased farm sizes and an operational separation of crop and livestock production. The trend of increasing centralization and industrialization of agriculture, specifically animal agriculture, has resulted in the concentration of waste products associated with animal production (manures and wash-down water) over relatively small geographic areas that are spatially segregated from crop production areas. Because the distance that manure can be economically hauled for land application has practical limits, the public is concerned that this spatial separation of crop and animal production areas could lead to over-application of manures near animal feeding facilities, and thus potentially increase the transport of nutrients to ground and surface waters. An aggregated analysis (statewide) of crop and animal production in Iowa suggests that about 30% to 40% of current nitrogen and phosphorus requirements for crop production could be supplied from manures and litters generated from livestock production, while about 50% of potassium requirements could be supplied. However, neither livestock nor crop production in Iowa is uniformly distributed across all counties. This unequal distribution suggests that a more disaggregated analysis of crop nutrient requirements and manure nutrient supply is necessary to estimate the risks of excess nutrient loss to the environment. Thus, we evaluated crop nutrient demand and manure and litter production at the county level to determine if excess manure generation is of concern and to locate areas where additional manures could be used. Results showed that several counties are becoming manure rich, but most locations maintain sufficient capacity to use manure nutrients effectively. Keywords: Crop nutrient capacity, Manure management, Manure production, Nutrient balance, Nutrient management.


1970 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 21-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nabin Kumar Dangal ◽  
D. Sharma Poudyal ◽  
S. M. Shrestha ◽  
C. Adhikari ◽  
J. M. Duxbury ◽  
...  

Pot experiment was conducted during July-September 2006 to evaluate some organic amendments such as sesame (Sesamum indicum) biomass, buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) biomass, neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves, chinaberry (Melia azedarch) leaves and chicken manure @ 1, 2 and 3 t ha-1 each against the rice root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne graminicola Golden & Birchfield) in direct seeded rice. The treatments were replicated five times in a randomized complete block design. The number of second stage juveniles (J2) of M. graminicola was significantly low in chicken manure @ 3 t ha-1. The root knot severity index was significantly low in sesame @ 3 t ha-1, chinaberry @ 3, 2 or 1 t ha-1, neem @ 3 t ha-1 and chicken manure @ 2 or 3 t ha-1 amended soil but root lesion severity index was lower only in chicken manure @ 2 t ha-1 treated plots. The fresh shoot weight and length were significantly high in chicken manure amendment @ 2 or 3 t ha-1 at 45th day after seeding. However, the fresh root weight, length, number of leaves and number of J2 recovered from the roots were non-significant. Key words: biomass; juveniles; Meloidogyne graminicola; root-knot severity index; root lesion severity index DOI: 10.3126/njst.v9i0.3160 Nepal Journal of Science and Technology 9 (2008) 21-27


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (01) ◽  
pp. 60-66
Author(s):  
Ari Kurniawati ◽  
Maya Melati ◽  
Sandra Arifin Aziz ◽  
Purwono Purwono

The application of organic fertilizer, especially manures, for crop production has long-term effects for soil nutrients availability and improvement of soil structure. The improvement of soil properties involves interactions of various types of microorganism in the soil. The research aimed to study the effects of different types of manures on the diversity of functional soil microbes and its effects on organic green mustard production. The experiment was conducted at IPB organic research field, Cikarawang, Darmaga, Bogor, from April to June 2015. The experiment used a randomized complete block design with two factors; the first factor was types of manure, i.e. chicken, cow, and goat manures; the second factor was manure rates, i.e. 0 and 10 ton.ha-1, so there were six treatments in total, replicated three times. The results showed that chicken manure application resulted in a higher mustard green yield and soil-P content than application of goat manure. The addition 10 ton.ha-1 of manures increased C-organic, N, K, and C/N ratio in soil significantly, but mustard green production was not affected. The diversity of microbe population of the soil treated with all types of manures was high. The addition 10 ton.ha-1 of manures decreased the total number of microbes, but increased the number of cellulose-degrading microbes. The population of cellulose-degrading and phosphate-solubilizing microbes in the soil applied with cow manure was higher than those applied with the other manures.


2014 ◽  
Vol 50 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 179-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Horuz ◽  
R. Cetinkaya-Yildiz ◽  
M. Mirik ◽  
Y. Aysan

During February and August of 2010 and 2011, disease symptoms were detected in melon (Cucumis melo cv. Surmeli) fields and commercial nurseries in Adana and Mersin provinces (Eastern Mediterranean Region, Turkey). Lesions on leaves and fruits were observed in nearly 75 and 85 acres production areas of melon in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Initial symptoms were water-soaked irregular spots, light brown to reddish spots advancing through veins on leaves, small water-soaked lesions, greasy, dark olive green colour areas on the surfaces of melon fruit followed by brown lesions, softening, and cracks. Thirty-five non-fluorescent, slow-growing, round, cream and Gram-negative bacterial isolates were isolated from symptomatic plant materials. The pathogenicity of the isolates was proved using melon seedlings and fruits. According to classical, serological, and molecular assays, the causal organism was identified as Acidovorax citrulli. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report and occurrence of bacterial fruit blotch disease on melon as a new host in Turkey.  


2019 ◽  
Vol 366 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. i60-i67
Author(s):  
Mette Lübeck ◽  
Peter Stephensen Lübeck

ABSTRACT Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) have extensive industrial applications as producers of lactic acid, as probiotics, as biocontrol agents and as biopreservatives. LAB play a large role in food fermentation and in silage processes, where crops such as grass, legumes, cereals or corn are fermented into high-moisture feed that is storable and can be used to feed cattle, sheep or other ruminants. LAB also have great applications within green biorefineries, with simultaneous production of protein-rich feed for monogastric animals, silage or feed pellets for ruminants and production of lactic acid or specific amino acids. In green biorefineries, fresh or ensiled wet biomass is mechanically fractionated into green juice and solid residues (press cake), where the plant juice, for example, can be used for production of lactic acid using LAB. In a process named ‘ENLAC’, recovery of protein and chlorophyll from silage by simultaneous lactic acid fermentation and enzyme hydrolysis has been developed. Furthermore, a process for protein recovery was recently developed by applying a specific LAB starter culture to green juice from freshly harvested crops. This paper focuses on reviewing LAB for their applications within biorefining of ‘green’ crops such as clover, alfalfa, grasses and other green plant materials.


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