Abstract
Nowadays, understory vegetation along the tree row is considered a vital source of agroecosystem services and functional biodiversity improvement in the fruit orchard. Hence, current orchard floor management systems encourage practicing a more sustainable approach that supports vegetation cover rather than keeping bare soil herbicide use, or tillage. A two-year field trial was conducted using two different ground management techniques; integrated mowing (mower and brush or disc) and herbicide (glyphosate) in two commercial apple and peach orchards in a nitrogen vulnerable zone (NVZ) of the Marche region, Italy. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of these practices on soil N status, weed abundance, percent of soil cover, and dry weed biomass production. Weed management systems had no significant effect on soil organic matter and N availability; however, an improvement was noticed under integrated mowing when compared to the one treated with herbicides. Integrated mowing had a significant effect on species richness, soil coverage, and weed biomass production, which was approximately 2-times higher than in the herbicide-treated plots. The overall results showed that integrated mowing maintained a balance in the soil N status of both orchards, while supporting above-ground weed biodiversity and soil protection.
Highlights
Conventional weed management along the tree row in a fruit orchard relies heavily on herbicide use, which is applied during the production season to suppress ground vegetation, causing desiccation and death of herbaceous plants and roots
Our results demonstrated that the integrated mowing technique maintained a significant percentage of soil coverage, species diversity, and dry weed biomass production in both orchards, which was approximately 2-times higher than in the herbicide system
The findings of this study support the idea of maintaining vegetation coverage along the tree row
Summary
Conventional weed management along the tree row in a fruit orchard relies heavily on herbicide use, which is applied during the production season to suppress ground vegetation, causing desiccation and death of herbaceous plants and roots. Herbicides can control weed competition effectively, they leave chemical residues in the soil which decrease soil fertility and orchard biodiversity [1,2] We concede that such an approach may become a serious threat to environmental sustainability in the long run. Ground vegetation can deliver several ecosystem services including environmental protection [7], habitat for beneficial microorganism [8], as well as sustaining soil fertility by hosting mycorrhizae [9]. These improve soil organic matter content, aggregates stability, Horticulturae 2020, 6, 96; doi:10.3390/horticulturae6040096 www.mdpi.com/journal/horticulturae
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