Legume Research

  • Chief EditorJ. S. Sandhu

  • Print ISSN 0250-5371

  • Online ISSN 0976-0571

  • NAAS Rating 6.80

  • SJR 0.391

  • Impact Factor 0.8 (2024)

Frequency :
Monthly (January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December)
Indexing Services :
BIOSIS Preview, ISI Citation Index, Biological Abstracts, Elsevier (Scopus and Embase), AGRICOLA, Google Scholar, CrossRef, CAB Abstracting Journals, Chemical Abstracts, Indian Science Abstracts, EBSCO Indexing Services, Index Copernicus
Submit

Research Article

Legume Research, volume 41 issue 1 (february 2018) : 87-94

Effect of nitrogen fixing cover crops on fertility of apple (Malus domestica Borkh) orchard soils assessed in a chronosequence in North-West Himalaya of Kashmir valley, india

J.A. Sofi, I.H. Dar, M.H. Chesti, I.A. Bisati, S.A. Mir, K.A. Sofi
1Division of Soil Science, Sher-E-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, Shalimar Campus, Srinagar-190 025, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

  • Submitted22-04-2015|

  • Accepted29-12-2016|

  • First Online 05-12-2017|

  • doi 10.18805/LR-3508

Cite article:- Sofi J.A., Dar I.H., Chesti M.H., Bisati I.A., Mir S.A., Sofi K.A. (2017). Effect of nitrogen fixing cover crops on fertility of apple (Malus domestica Borkh) orchard soils assessed in a chronosequence in North-West Himalaya of Kashmir valley, india. Legume Research. 41(1): 87-94. doi: 10.18805/LR-3508.

ABSTRACT

The aim of this work was to study the effect of nitrogen fixing cover crops on soil organic carbon fractions and nutrient status in apple orchard soils in a chronosequence in north-west Himalaya of Kashmir, India. The experiment include six phases of chronosequence (0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50) years under three landscapes. Soil of lower altitudes with no cover crop grown in the orchard floor, the mid altitude soils with berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum) as a cover crop and in the higher altitudes with the alfalfa (Medicago sativa) grown as nitrogen fixing cover crop. There is a perceptible temperature difference across these landscapes. In addition to the apple yield and nutrients content, physical properties and soil organic fractions were investigated. Compared to the sites where no nitrogen fixing cover crops were grown there was 51% and 92% increase in the apple yield over other sites with inclusion of berseem and alfalfa.  There was significant increase in yield up to 40 years and declined with advancement of stand age. Higher contents of all soil organic carbon pools were found in the higher altitudes with alfalfa grown as a cover crop in the orchard floor. Lower bulk densities were observed in the sites with cover crops grown in the apple orchard which might have synergistic role on nutrient cycling. There was significant increase of N, K, S, Mg, Fe and Mn and no discernible difference were observed for B, Cu, P and Zn. There was significant increase of the nutrients up to 40 years and afterwards significant drop was observed. Our result suggests that there was significant decrease of the nutrients from vertical soil depth of 0-90 cm.  

REFERENCES

  1. Ares, A., Boniche, J. and Yost, R.S. (2002). Bactris gasipaes agro-ecosystems for heart-of-palm production in Costa Rica: Changes in biomass, nutrient and carbon pools with stand age and plant density. Field Crop Res., 74: 13-22.
  2. Berg, B. and Mcclaugherty, C.(2008). Plant Litter Decomposition, Humus Formation and Carbon Sequestration, 2ndedn. Springer, Berlin.
  3. Berger, K.C. and Truog, E. (1939). Boron determination in soils and plants using the quanalisarin reaction. J. Ind. Eng. Chem., 2: 311–320.
  4. Binkley, D. and Ryan, M. (1997). Net productivity and nutrient cycling in replicated stands of Eucalyptus saligna and Albizia facaltaria. Forest Ecol. Manag., 11 (32): 79-85.
  5. Binkley, D. and Vitousek, P. (1991). Soil nutrient availability. In: Pearcy R.W, et al. (eds): Plant Physiological Ecology, Chapman and Hall, London.
  6. Blake, G.R. and Hartge, K.H. (1986). Bulk density. In: Methods of Soil Analysis. Klute A (eds), Part I. Physical and Mineralogical Methods, Agronomy Monograph No. 9, Second Edition: pp 363-375.
  7. Blair, G.B., Lefroy, R.D.B., Singh, B.P. and Till, A.R.(1995). Development and use of a carbon management index to monitor changes in soil C pool size and turnover rate. In Cadisch G., and K.E.Giller, (Eds), Driven by Nature: Plant Litter Quality and Decomposition (pp 273-281), CAB International, Wallingford, U.K.
  8. Bremner, J.M. (1965). Inorganic forms of nitrogen. In: Methods of Soil Analysis. Black CA (eds), Part 2 Agronomy Monograph No.9: pp 1179-1239.
  9. Camberdella, C.A., and Elliott, E.T.(1992) Particulate soil organic matter across grassland cultivation sequence. Soil Sci. Soc. America J., 56: 777-783.
  10. Edwards, C.A. and Lofty, J.R. (1982). Nitrogenous fertilizers and earthworm populations in agricultural soils. Soil Biol. Biochem., 14: 515–521.
  11. Ingles, C., Horn, M.V., Bugg, R. and Miller, P.R. (1994). Selecting the right cover crop gives multiple benefits. Calif. Agr., 48: 43-48.
  12. Jackson, M.L. (1973). Soil Chemical Analysis. Prentice Hall of India Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi India.
  13. Jenkinson, D.S., and Powlson, D.S.(1976). The effects of biocidal treatment on metabolism in soil- V:A method for measuring soil biomass. Soil Bio. Biochem., 8: 209-213.
  14. Keen, B. and Raczkowski, H.J.(1921). Relationship between clay and certain physical properties of soils. J. Agr. Sci., 11: 441-449.
  15. Lindsay, W.L. and Norvell, W.A. (1978). Development of a DTPA soil test for zinc, iron, manganese and copper. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J., 42: 421-428.
  16. Patrick, J.B., Peter, M.G., Charles, T.D., Timothy, J.F. and Thomas, G.S. (2001). Plant soil microbial interactions in a northern hardwood forest. Ecology, 5: 965-978.
  17. Piper, C.S. (1966). Soil and Plant Analysis. Hans publisher, Bombay.
  18. Poglase, P.J., Atttiwill, P.M. and Adams, M.A .(1992). Nitrogen and phosphorus cycling in relation to stand age of Eucalytus regans. Plant Soil, 142: 177-185.
  19. Qiong, Z., Xing-liu, L. and De-Hui, Z. (2011). Above ground biomass and nutrient allocation in an age sequence of Larix olgensis plantations. J. For Res., 22: 71-76.
  20. Ryan, M., Binkley, D. and Fownes, J. (1997). Age related decline in forest productivity. Pattern and Processes. Adv. Ecol. Res., 27: 213-262.
  21. Scandellari, F., Ventura, M., Malaguti, D., Ceccon, C., Menarbin, G and Tagliavini, M. (2010). Net primary productivity and partitioning of absorbed nutrients in field-grown apple trees. Acta Horticulture, 868: 132-137.
  22. Smith, M.W., Shiferaw, A. and Rice, N.R. (1996). Legume cover crops as a nitrogen source for pecan. J. Plant Nutr., 19: 1117-1130.
  23. Tateno, R., Fukushima, K., Fujimaki, R., Shimamura, T., Ohgi, S., Arai, H., Ohte, N., Tokachi, N. and Yosshioka, T. (2009). Biomass allocation and nitrogen limitation in Cryptomeria japonica plantation chronosequence. J. For Res., 14: 276-285. 
  24. Vose, J.M., Dougherty, P.M., Long, J.N., Smith, F.W., Gohlz, H.L and Curran, P.J. (1995). Factors influencing the amount and distribution of leaf area in pine stand. In: [Gholz, H.L., Linder, S., McMurttrie, R.E., (Eds)] Environmental Constraints on the Structure and Productivity of Pine Forest Ecosystems. A Comparative Analysis. Ecological bulletin, 43: 102-114.
  25. Walkley, A.J. and Black, C.A.(1934). An estimation of the Degtjareff method for determining soil organic matter and a proposed modification of the chromic acid titration method. Soil Sci., 37: 29-38.
  26. Watanable, F.S. and Olsen, S.R.(1965). Test of an ascorbic method for determining phosphorus in water and NaHCO3 extracts from soils. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Pro., 29: 677-678.
  27. William, C.H. and Steinbergs, A.(1959). Soil sulphur fractions as chemical indices of available sulphur in some Australian soils. Aust. J. Agric. Res., 10: 340-352.
  28. Wang, W.J., Qiu, L.Z., Yuan, Y. and Chen, X. (2011). Change in soil organic carbon, pH, bulk density with the development of Larch (Larix gemelini) plantation of china. Glob. Change Biol., 17: 2657-2676.
  29. Wanghong, D. and Yao, H. (2006). Relation of soil organic matter concentration to climate and altitude in Zonal soil China. Catena, 65: 87-94.
  30. Zimmerman, J.K., Pulliam, W.M., Quinones, N., Guzman, G., Parrota, J.A., Asbury, C.E., Walker, L.R. and Wide, S. (1995). Nitrogen immobilization by decomposing woody debris and recovery of tropical wet forest from hurricane damage. Oikos,72:314-322. 
Reviewed By

Download Article
In this Article
    Contact us
    Follow us

    Editorial Board

    View all (0)