Influence of Leguminous Cover Crops on Soil Chemical and Biological Properties in a No-Till Tropical Fruit Orchard

Abstract

South Florida’s agricultural soils are traditionally low in organic matter (OM) and high in carbonate rock fragments. These calcareous soils are inherently nutrient-poor and require management for successful crop production. Sunn hemp (SH, Crotalaria juncea) and velvet bean (VB, Mucuna pruriens) are highly productive leguminous cover crops (CCs) that have shown potential to add large quantities of dry biomass to nutrient- and organic-matter-limited systems. This study focuses on intercropping these two CCs with young carambola (Averrhoa carambola) trees. The objective was to test the effectiveness of green manure crops in providing nutrients and supplementing traditional fertilizer regimes with a sustainable soil-building option. Typically, poultry manure (PM) is the standard fertilizer used in organic or sustainable production in the study area. As such, PM treatments and fallow were included for comparison. The treatments were fallow control (F), fallow with PM (FM), sunn hemp (SH), SH with PM (SHM), velvet bean (VB), and VB with PM (VBM). Sunn hemp and VB were grown for two summer growing seasons. At the end of each 90-day growing period, the CCs were terminated and left on the soil surface to decompose in a no-till fashion. The results suggest that SH treatments produced the greatest amount of dry biomass material ranging from 48 to 71% higher than VB over two growing seasons. As a result, SH CCs also accumulated significantly higher amounts of total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN) within their dry biomass that was added to the soil. Sunn hemp, SHM, and FM treatments showed the greatest accumulation of soil OM, TC, and TN. Soil inorganic N (NH₄⁺ + NO3- + NO2) fluctuated throughout the experiment. Our results indicate that generally, VB-treated soils had their highest available N around 2 months post termination, while SH-treated soils exhibited significantly higher N values at CC termination time. Sunn hemp + PM (SHM)treatments had highest soil N availability around 4 months after CC termination. Soil enzyme activity results indicate that at CC termination, SHM exhibited the highest levels of β-1-4- glucosidase and β-N-acetylglucosaminidase among all treatments. Overall, SH, SHM, and FM treatments showed the greatest potential for supplementing soil nutrients and organic matter in a no-till fruit production setting.

Three years of cover crops management increased soil organic matter and labile carbon pools in a subtropical vegetable agroecosystem

“…Even though we did not measure particulate organic matter, the patterns of labile organic C pools support this interpretation. Previous studies from the region reported SOM accumulation in 1 or 2 years after cover crop use; however, their soil sampling occurred shortly after the termination of cover crops, which could be prone to transient soil C dynamics due to the large C inputs from cover crop residues (Castellano-Hinojosa et al, 2022;Freidenreich et al, 2022;Wang et al, 2012). By tracking SOM concentrations prior to cover crop planting over 3 years, we were able to limit the transient effects of post cover crop termination and detect a temporal increase in soil SOM with cover crops, suggesting that continuous use of summer cover crops is likely to sustain SOM accumulation even in subtropical agroecosystems with coarse-textured soils.…”

Effect of natural weed and Siratro cover crop on soil fungal diversity in a banana cropping system in southwestern China

“…Perennial cover crops are often used to improve soil properties of tropical fruit crops, even without the need to plow and incorporate the cover crop into the soil ( Wei et al, 2021 ; Freidenreich et al, 2022 ). However, they are more difficult to use in banana cropping systems compared to other tropical fruits, as banana leaves create a large amount of shade limiting the growth of most cover crops.…”

Impact of varied NPK fertilizer application rates and seed quantities on barley yield and soil nutrient availability in chestnut soil of Azerbaijan

“…This practice likely contributed to soil improvement, potentially explaining the yield increase observed during that specific period. The studies (Freidenreich et al, 2022;Gou et al, 2023) have shown that incorporating leguminous plants into the soil as cover crops increases crop production. Prior to setting up the experiment, leguminous plants, which were used as cover crops in the field, were mixed with the soil just before the experiment, followed by barley planting.…”