Use of organic mulch to enhance water-use efficiency and peach production under limiting soil conditions in a three-year-old orchard
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Author
Pascual, Miquel
Villar, Josep M.
Fonseca, Francisco
Papió, Josep
Montilla, Victor
Publication date
2015-12-02ISSN
1695-971X
Abstract
Mulching techniques have emerged in recent years to overcome soil constraints and improve fruit tree productivity. The object of this study was to evaluate the effects of a low-cost organic mulch application in a newly planted peach orchard under a ridge planting system. Three treatments were performed in 12 elementary plots using a randomized complete block design. The orchard was drip-irrigated. Mulch was applied in two treatments, which differed in fertigation (none vs. multi-nutrient fertigation), while the third treatment did not include either mulch or fertigation and served as the control. Treatments were compared in terms of their effects on the physical properties of the soil, crop response, and water-use efficiency. Mulch treatments did not alter the soil bulk density. However, the mulch significantly (p=0.0004) increased the water infiltration rate (2.21 mm/h vs. 121 mm/h), which is a key issue when working in high frequency irrigation systems under soil limiting conditions. Similarly, mulched treatments showed a more favorable water status both in the second and the third year, which was translated in a better crop response. Thus, mulched treatments recorded higher yields both in the second (+155%, p=0.0005) and the third year (+53%, p=0.0007) of the experiment. Water use efficiency (WUEagr) was higher in the mulch treatments (+50% in average, p=0.0007) than in the control in the third year of the study. On the basis of our results, we propose that organic-mulching techniques should be considered as a beneficial practice to apply in fruit-trees production under limiting soil conditions.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
633 - Field crops and their production
Pages
9
Publisher
Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria
Is part of
Spanish Journal of Agricultural Research
Citation
Lordan, Joan, Miquel Pascual, Josep M. Villar, Francisco Fonseca, Josep Papió, Victor Montilla, and Josep Rufat. 2015. "Use Of Organic Mulch To Enhance Water-Use Efficiency And Peach Production Under Limiting Soil Conditions In A Three-Year-Old Orchard". Spanish Journal Of Agricultural Research 13 (4): e0904. doi:10.5424/sjar/2015134-6694.
Grant agreement number
INIA/Programa Nacional de Proyectos de Investigación Fundamental/RTA2009-00056-00-00/ES/Aplicación de aire a través del riego enterrado en frutales en suelos compactos/
Program
Ús Eficient de l'Aigua en Agricultura
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2811]
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/