Effectiveness of inorganic and organic mulching for soil salinity and sodicity control in a grapevine orchard drip-irrigated with moderately saline waters

Ramón Aragüés,Ignacio Clavería,Eva T Medina

doi:10.5424/sjar/2014122-5466

Ramón Aragüés, Ignacio Clavería + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5424/sjar/2014122-5466

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Abstract

Soil mulching is a sensible strategy to reduce evaporation, accelerate crop development, reduce erosion and assist in weed control, but its efficiency for soil salinity control is not as well documented. The benefits of inorganic (plastic) and organic (grapevine pruning residues) mulching for soil salinity and sodicity control were quantified in a grapevine orchard (cultivars ‘Autumn’ Royal and ‘Crimson’) drip-irrigated with moderately saline waters. Soil samples were taken at the beginning and end of the 2008 and 2009 irrigation seasons in six vines of each cultivar and mulching treatment. Soil saturation extract electrical conductivity (ECe), chloride (Cle) and sodium adsorption ratio (SARe) values increased in all treatments of both grapevines along the irrigation seasons, but the increases were much lower in the mulched than in the bare soils due to reduced evaporation losses and concomitant decreases in salt evapo-concentration. The absolute salinity and sodicity daily increases in ‘Autumn’ and ‘Crimson’ 2008 and in ‘Crimson’ 2009 were on the average 44% lower in the plastic and 76% lower in the organic mulched soils than in the bare soil. The greater efficiency of the organic than the plastic mulch in ‘Crimson’ 2009 was attributed to the leaching of salts by a precipitation of 104 mm that infiltrated the organic mulch but was intercepted by the plastic mulch. Although further work is needed to substantiate these results, the conclusion is that the plastic mulch and, particularly, the organic mulch were more efficient than the bare soil for soil salinity and sodicity control.

Highlights

Mulches are frequently used in vegetable production to reduce evaporation losses from the soil surface, accelerate crop development in cool climates by increasing soil temperature, reduce erosion and assist in weed control
Except for the bare soil, the differences between grapevines and mulching treatments were not different (p>0.05) due to the relatively high standard errors derived from the high spatial variability of soil water content typical in drip irrigation systems (Hanson, 2012)
The lower soil salinization (Δabs) in the plastic than in the bare soil in both years and grapevines (Table 1) was attributed to its lower evaporation and lower concentration of the salts applied with the irrigation water

Summary

Introduction

Mulches are frequently used in vegetable production to reduce evaporation losses from the soil surface, accelerate crop development in cool climates by increasing soil temperature, reduce erosion and assist in weed control. Plastic mulches reduce the evaporation of water from the soil surface by 50-80% (Allen et al, 1998). Organic mulches reduce the evaporation of water depending on its characteristics ( fragment size and thickness) (Diaz et al, 2005). As a consequence of reduced evaporation, soil mulching benefits the conservation of water, in the topsoil, decreases the evapo-concentration of the salts present in the irrigation water and the soil solution (Zhang et al, 2008), and minimizes soil salinization and sodication (Chaudhry et al, 2004; Rahman et al, 2006)

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