Abstract:

In order to investigate the impact of different soil management techniques on the physical and chemical characteristics of soil in the peach orchard, a filed experiment was conducted in Xinyang City, Henan Province, with two treatments of plastic film mulching (black degradable film mulching) and natural grass growing, while the clean cultivation was served as the control (CK). The changes of soil pH, temperature and the contents of organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and water were analyzed. The results indicated that, in comparison to the CK, the plastic film mulching and natural grass growing treatments both significantly (P<0.05) increased the soil organic matter content in the 0-10 cm soil layer, yet had no significant impact on soil pH. The natural grass growing treatment significantly increased the total nitrogen content in the 0-10 cm soil layer by 24.39%, and the available phosphorus content in the 10-20 cm soil layer by 27.11% compared with the CK. Besides, the natural grass growing treatment also significantly increased the available potassium content in the 0-10 and 10-20 cm soil layer than that of the CK. The plastic film mulching treatment significantly increased the available nitrogen content in the 0-10 and 10-20 cm soil layer by 18.51%, 20.49%, respectively. The two treatments of plastic film mulching and natural grass growing exhibited no significant influence on the nutrients content in the 20-40 cm soil layer. The natural grass growing treatment increased soil water content from July to September and enhanced the soil temperature stability. The plastic film mulching treatment resulted in an increase in soil water content during the initial stages and showed positive effect on soil warming.

Key words: degradable plastic film, plastic film mulching, natural grass growing, orchard, soil physical and chemical properties