Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
E
FFECT OF
V
ARIOUS
M
ULCH
M
ATERIALS
ON
S
OD
-P
ODZOLIC
S
OIL AND
F
IELD
C
ROPS
Y
IELD
A. V. Lednev
Doctor of Agricultural Sciences
A
BSTRACT
The author suggests a new way to increase soil fertility by forming a mulch layer on
the soil surface. The layer is a mixture of a mulch material and the soil layer of 0-5 cm.
The paper studies the use of various mulches, including traditional fertilizers and
ameliorants (peat and straw), and non-traditional ones (bentonite clay and lime). Mixing
mulches with the soil layer of 0-5 cm significantly increased their efficiency, as they
acted as both fertilizers and mulch materials. It has been proved that all mulch materials
selected for the study had a comprehensive positive effect on the soil. In most cases, they
decreased acidity, increased the amount of exchangeable bases, organic matter, mineral
nutrients, and the amount of available moisture in the plow horizon. Forming a mulch
layer increased crop yields by 10-40% compared with the control (without mulches).
Keywords:
Mulch layer, mulch materials, ameliorants, fertilizers, soil properties, yield, soil
fertility.
I
NTRODUCTION
Most of the world soil resources, including the resources of Russia, have a number of
characteristics that are negative from the agronomic point of view. Finding ways to increase
their fertility is indeed a very urgent task. This is usually achieved through a whole complex
of agro-technical, agro-chemical, ameliorative and other activities. However, with more
intense agricultural production, there is an increase in the technogenic load on the soil, the
number of operations, the depth of soil cultivation, and the intensity of soil pulverization.
This, in turn, has a greater negative effect, such as dispersion of soil aggregates,
mineralization of organic matter and water loss due to evaporation. Besides, it leads to
Search WWH ::
Custom Search