Search Results
The goals of sustainable agriculture include decreased reliance on synthetic nutrients and pesticides and improved environmental quality for the long-term benefit of the land, livelihood of growers, and their communities. Cropping systems that maximize these goals use alternative fertility and pest control options to produce crops with minimal soil erosion and nutrient leaching. Cropping system elements that can help achieve these goals include: reduced tillage, cover crops, and organic soil amendments. Cover crops are grown before the cash crop and used to replenish the soil with nitrogen and organic matter. Cover crops often also influence pest populations and can be selected based on site-specific growing conditions. Cover crops can be mulched on the soil surface to prevent erosion and weed emergence or can be tilled directly into the soil to incorporate nitrogen and organic matter. Green waste mulch is an increasingly used soil amendment. Many municipalities are encouraging farmers to use green waste mulch in farming systems as an alternative to green waste disposal in landfills. Reduced tillage was once restricted to large-seeded field crops but recent technical advances have made it a feasible option for vegetables and other horticultural crops. Alternative farming practices; however, are still only used by a small minority of growers. Increases in price for organic produce and changes in laws governing farming operations may increase adoption of alternatives to conventional agriculture.
A 2-year field project was conducted in Thermal, Calif., to investigate cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] mulch as an alternative weed control option in pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) production. Treatments included: bare ground (BG) with hand weeding, BG with no weeding, cowpea mulch (CM) with hand weeding, and CM with no weeding. Cowpea was seeded in July on 76-cm beds and irrigated with buried drip line. Two weeks prior to transplanting peppers, irrigation water was turned off to desiccate the cowpea plants. In September, cowpea was cut at the soil line, mulch was returned to the top of the bed, and pepper plants were transplanted into the mulch and fertilized through the drip line. Every 2 weeks, the number of weeds emerged and pepper plant height were recorded. Fruit production, pepper plant dry weight, and weed dry weight were recorded at harvest in December. Fewer weeds emerged in CM than in BG. The final weed population in nonweeded CM was reduced 80% and 90% in comparison with nonweeded BG in 1997 and 1998, respectively. Weed dry weights in nonweeded CM were 67% and 90% less than those in nonweeded BG over the same period. In 1997 and 1998, respectively, pepper plants produced 202% and 156% more dry weight, as well as greater fruit weight, in CM than in BG. There were no differences in mean fruit weight. Cowpea mulch provided season-long weed control without herbicides while promoting plant growth and fruit production.
The effect of summer cover crop and management system on subsequent fall romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and spring muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) growth and yield was evaluated in the Coachella Valley of California from 1999 to 2003. Cover crop treatments included: 1) cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] incorporated into the soil in the fall (CPI), 2) cowpea used as mulch in the fall (CPM), 3) sudangrass [Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench] incorporated into the soil in the fall (SGI), and 4) a bare ground control (BG). Management system treatments included: 1) conventional system (CON), 2) integrated crop management (ICM), and 3) organic system (ORG). Cowpea cover crop, either incorporated or used as surface mulch, increased lettuce growth and yield by increasing biomass allocation to lettuce leaf and leaf area growth. Cowpea mulch decreased muskmelon leaf and biomass growth and reduced muskmelon yield. Sudangrass produced more biomass than cowpea and reduced lettuce growth and yield. However, in the following spring, the SGI treatment had the highest muskmelon yield. Lettuce growth was significantly affected by management system, while muskmelon growth at the early stage was unaffected. The organic system reduced both lettuce and muskmelon yield compared with CON and ICM management systems.
In an effort to identify new herbicides for vegetables crops, broccoli (Brassica oleracea) cantaloupe (Cucumis melo), carrot (Daucus carota), head lettuce (Lactuca sativa), bulb onion (Allium cepa), spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and processing tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) were evaluated in the field for tolerance to eight herbicides. The following herbicides and rates, expressed in a.i. lb/acre, were applied preemergence: carfentrazone, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2; flufenacet, 0.525; flumioxazin, 0.063, 0.125 and 0.25; halosulfuron, 0.032 and 0.047; isoxaben, 0.25 and 0.50; rimsulfuron, 0.016 and 0.031; SAN 582, 0.94 and 1.20 and sulfentrazone, 0.15 and 0.25 (1.000 lb/acre = 1.1208 kg·ha-1). Tolerance was evaluated by measuring crop stand, injury and biomass. Several leads for new vegetable herbicides were identified. Lettuce demonstrated tolerance to carfentrazone at 0.05 and 0.10 lb/acre. Cantaloupe and processing tomato were tolerant of halosulfuron at 0.032 and 0.047 lb/acre. Broccoli, cantaloupe and processing tomato were tolerant of SAN 582 at 0.94 lb/acre. Broccoli and carrot were tolerant of sulfentrazone at 0.15 lb/acre.
Landscape irrigation is the second largest user of reclaimed water in industrialized countries; however, its high concentration of soluble salts, especially Na+ and Cl–, may induce growth reduction and leaf necrosis or bronzing in ornamental species. The present study was conducted to determine the growth and quality responses and nutritional ion imbalances of selected landscape species during the container production phase when subjected to irrigation with water of increasing NaCl + CaCl2 concentrations. Plants of boxwood [Buxus microphylla var. japonica (Mull. Arg. ex Miq) Rehder & E.H. Wilson], escallonia (Escallonia ×exoniensis hort. Veich ex Bean), hawthorn [Raphiolepis indica (L.) Lind. Ex Ker Gawl. × ‘Montic’], hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis L.), and juniper (Juniperus chinensis L.) were grown in a greenhouse in the Spring–Summer and in the Fall–Winter in separate experiments. Saline irrigation consisted of solutions with electrical conductivities (ECiw) of 0.6, 2, 4, 6, and 8 dS·m−1 in the Spring–Summer experiment and 0.6, 4, 6, 8, and 12 dS·m−1 in the Fall–Winter. Growth of the five species decreased when irrigated with saline waters. Leaf growth was highly sensitive to salinity and the average decrease in leaf dry weight was the criterion used to rank the tolerance of the species. In the Spring–Summer experiment, the ranking was (higher tolerance to lower tolerance): juniper ∼ boxwood > escallonia > hawthorn > hibiscus, whereas in Fall–Winter, the ranking was: juniper ∼ boxwood > hibiscus > escallonia > hawthorn. The species were ranked according to their visual attractiveness in the Spring–Summer experiment. The threshold ECiw at which visual attractiveness was affected gave the following ranking (higher to lower tolerance): hibiscus > juniper > escallonia > hawthorn > boxwood. Estimating the EC of drainage water from threshold ECiw, boxwood was classified as sensitive, hawthorn as moderately sensitive, escallonia as moderately tolerant, and hibiscus and juniper as highly tolerant. Tolerance of juniper was ascribed to Na+ and Cl– retention in the roots observed in both growing seasons and to the higher root biomass that allowed a higher accumulation of salts in this organ, preventing translocation to the leaves. Although boxwood exhibited acceptable tolerance in terms of growth, visual quality severely decreased; in contrast, growth of hibiscus was the most severely reduced but was rated as the most tolerant species in terms of visual quality. This opposite response may be the result of an excellent capacity to compartmentalize salts in hibiscus, whereas in boxwood, this mechanism may be absent.