Studies on the soil temperature under different methods of soil management in orchard

Abstract

In order to investigate soil temperature under different methods of soil management in orchard, observations on soil temperature, air temperature, humidity and radiation were made from March 4 to 7 in 1957, as shown in Table 1.1. Soil temperature in the plot mulched with straw was the highest and that in clean cultured plot the lowest at night. But during day-time soil temperature in clean cultured plot registered the highest value and that in the mulched plot the lowest value, as shown in Fig. 1.2. The difference in heat balance between clean cultured and mulched plot was calculated from Formula 1 and 2, as shown in Table 1. From this table, it is recognized that heat stored in the soil in mulched plot was less as compared with that in clean cultured plot.3. It was considered that there are two factors to acount for the lower value of soil temperature during day-time and higher value at night under straw mulch. One of them is the lower value of net radiation absorbed by straw surface as shown in Fig. 3, and another is the lower heat conductivity of straw, as shown in Table 4 and Fig. 4.