Articles
IFP-COMPATIBLE GROUND-COVER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN A NEW-PLANTED APPLE ORCHARD
Delia (a rather new strain of cv.
Idared) on the rootstock M. 26.
Using groundcover materials like straw, livestock manure, pine bark mulch, black polypropylene proved to be favourable as regards shoot growth in new-planted trees.
The total shoot growth (cm/tree) was more – by 6 to 22 % – than in trees in soil strip with clean cultivation.
There is a similar, but more uniform increase in the average length of shoots (12 to 22 %). The stronger shoot growth is also reflected by the increment of trunk circumference.
There was a higher water content of soil in tree rows covered (the highest one under livestock manure), the lowest values were recorded in plots of herbicide.
According to preliminary microbiological investigatons of the soil, the numbers of bacteria belong to different physiological groups increased as a result of groundcover with livestock and straw, but no change was found under polypropylene folia and pine bark mulch.
Nevertheless, under both groundcovers mentioned later the highest amount of spore of arbuscular micorrhizal fungi was found.