Soil assessment of apple orchards under conventional and organic management

Abstract

To determine the effect of wheel traffic and two different management practices on soil compaction and its consequences on physical and chemical soil properties, we measured penetration resistance, water infiltration, bulk density, macroporosity, chemical mobility, air permeability, and soil strength in a conventional orchard (integrated fruit-production program) with bare (sprayed with herbicides) rows and an organic apple orchard with grassed rows. Resistance measurements were taken both within the tree row and the wheel track, down to a depth of 0.35 to 0.40 m. The results indicate that compaction is greater in the wheel tracks under both management methods. Compaction in the wheel track was higher under organic than conventional management. Organic management resulted in a higher macroporosity in both the row and the wheel-track than conventional management. The ‘close-to-saturation’ infiltration rate was significantly greater within the row of the organic orchard (0.06 m/h) compared with the row of the conventional orchard (0.02 m/h), and compared with the wheel tracks (0.01 m/h). The precompression stress value in the top 100 mm, a measure of the soil strength, was low on all sites. The chemical mobilities were 57 and 50% in the organic orchard, and 86 and 93% in the conventional orchard, respectively, for wheel track and row. Apart from the compaction in the wheel track of the organic orchard, physical and chemical soil characteristics were in a better condition compared with the conventional orchard.