Improving Ecological Functions and Ornamental Values of Traditional Pear Orchard by Co-Planting of Green Manures of Astragalus sinicus L. and Lathyrus cicera L.

Abstract

Traditional orchards received little attention in ecology. In order to enhance the ecological function of traditional pear orchard, it is an effective strategy to co-plant the ornamental green manure (GM) under the pear forest. In this study, two kinds of GM, i.e., Astragalus sinicus L. (AS) and Lathyrus cicera L. (LC), were co-planted in pear tree orchard to elevate its landscape benefits of spatiotemporal distribution of flowers, the nutrient benefits and oxygen production. The results showed that the flower height of AS and LC arrange between 20~30 cm, and the flowering period covers the March. LC has a large number of flowers, a small area of single flower, and high yield of fresh grass. AS has a small number of flowers, a large area of single flower, and low yield of a single fresh grass. Among them, 35% AS + 65% LC and 50% AS + 50% LC are more suitable in achieving the well tourism value and potential good production of pear orchard. Nutrient accumulation, total carbon fixation and oxygen production, flower number of 35% AS + 65% LC are larger than other treatments, while the flower period of 50% AS + 50% LC is longest. This study proposed a “win-win” GM planting strategy for sustainable orchard development, by enhancing ecology functions and the landscaped value of the traditional fruit orchard.

Typical JUNCAO Overwintering Performance and Optimized Cultivation Conditions of Pennisetum sp. in Guizhou, Southwest China

“…First harvest was conducted on 23 November 2018 and the stubble height was kept at 3-4 cm, afterwards, the second harvest was performed on 12 December 2019. After JUNCAO sample was collected, the fresh samples were weighed and dried for determination of dry weight/matter, crude protein, crude fat, and crude fiber [26]. Germination rate of the different seeds, viz.…”

“…The Kjeldahl method (AOAC 2001.11) was used to measure the total nitrogen in JUNCAO samples collected from the total two harvests [27,28]. After the plant samples were digested using aqua regia microwave assisted method [29,30], the contents of total potassium and total phosphorus in the plant samples were determined by flame spectrophotometer (FP6450, Xinyi, Inc., Shanghai, China) [31,32] and molybdenum blue colorimetric method using 700 nm wavelength mode (Shimadzu TNM-1 detector) [26,33], respectively. The dry matter, rude fat and crude fiber were determined by drying method (oven-dried at 70 • C for 3 days) [34,35], Soxhlet extraction method [36] and the traditional Van Soest method [37], respectively.…”

“…Compared with the yield increase extent (by 30.4%) of a medium amount of nitrogen, the yield increase extent (by 4.34%) of 1600 kg ha −1 was lower (Table 5), which implied that the nitrogen fertilizer does not necessarily increase the JUNCAO yield, and excessive nitrogen fertilizer cannot further promote the JUNCAO growth. In addition, oversupplying nitrogen may cause a waste of workforce and production feedstocks, and more emissions of greenhouse gases [26]. Furthermore, an over-dose of nitrogen fertilizer can cause plant stem cell expansion, which leads to a decrease in the cane strength at the medium growth stage of JUNCAO [47].…”

“…Furthermore, an over-dose of nitrogen fertilizer can cause plant stem cell expansion, which leads to a decrease in the cane strength at the medium growth stage of JUNCAO [47]. The blade area increase caused by excessive nitrogen fertilizer is another problem that can hamper the photosynthesis process in middle blades [26,32]. Thus, the over-dose of nitrogen fertilizer was not favorable for the plantation purpose of JUNCAO as feedstock [31,48].…”

Effects of green manure planting mode on the quality of Korla fragrant pears (Pyrus sinkiangensis Yu)

“…For example, Lee et al (2014) compared the influences of Astragalus sinicus and rye on the fruit weight, soluble solids and titratable acids of fragrant pear fruits. In addition, the coplanting of Astragalus sinicus and Lathyrus cicera providing nutrients for the growth of pear trees while improving the tourism and ecological functions of pear orchards (Zhang et al, 2021a). Leguminosae, Poaceae and Cruciferae are common types of green manures in fruit orchards (Yim et al, 2017;Deakin et al, 2018;Zhong et al, 2018).…”