EXERCISE 6

EXERCISE 6: ORCHARD SOIL MANAGEMENT- COVER CROPPING IN FRUIT ORCHARDS

Cover crops: These are those crops which are grown in the orchards with the objective to protect the soil against erosion. Hence, these crops are solely grown in the orchard to provide vegetation cover to the soil surface.

Aim
  • To control soil erosion and improve water holding capacity of the soil
  • To add organic matter to the soil
  • To improve soil condition and soil fertility
  • Suppress weeds during rainy season.
Material: An ideal cover is one which has highly ramified/well branched root system and as such capable of binding the soil firmly (Plate 6.1). It should be slow growing, bushy and need less amount of water and nutrients from the soil and doze not harbour insect-pest and diseases. Ideal cover crops for Kharief include green gram, black gram, compress cluster bean, soybean. Crops for Rabi season are fenugreek, broad bean and lentil.

6.1
Plate 6.1: White clover (Trifolium repense) provides year round orchard cover in temperate and sub-tropics regions.

Procedure: In areas where soil is eroded during rains and drainage is poor, soil is cultivated and weeds are completely removed poor to the on-set of rainy season. The cover crops are sown between the rows at the on-set of the rains. Leguminous cover crops should be preferred because they add additional N in soil through fixation of atmospheric N in their module. After the rainy season, the crops may be turned down into the soil. Likewise, winter season crops are sown in October-November months and May or may not be turned down in spring.

Precautious
1. Avoid deep ploughing near the rooting zone of the trees.
2. Avoid the use of exhaustive crops.
3. Keep the basin area under clean cultivation.

Observation
1. Record soil organic matter contacts of the end of growing season of cover crops.
2. Take observation on number of weeds and dry weight of weeds on pr unit area basic.
3. Take observation on annual shoot growth, trunk girth, tree height and spread .
Last modified: Saturday, 7 January 2012, 7:26 AM