Report
Soil biota in orchards
Fact sheet (Washington State University. Extension), 315E, Washington State University Extension
04/2019
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/16465
Abstract
The soil is alive. In just one acre of agricultural soil there can be 5,000 pounds of bacteria and fungi, 800 pounds of arthropods, 300 pounds of protozoa, and 100 pounds of nematodes. These organisms provide many ecosystem services that are essential for the healthy growth of your trees. For example, soil biota suppress pests; mineralize, scavenge, and cycle nutrients; and decompose plant and animal material, all ecosystem services which benefit orchard productivity. Orchard floor management can increase the abundance and activity of soil biological communities. Organic matter additions from cover crops, crop residues, compost, and other material feed the soil food web. Practices such as mulching tree rows with wood chips or mown-and-blown cover crops as well as compost applications have been seen to increase soil biota in orchards and the ecosystem services they provide.
Metrics
77 File views/ downloads
130 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Soil biota in orchards
- Creators
- S. Tianna DuPont (Author)
- Academic Unit
- Publications, WSU Extension
- Series
- Fact sheet (Washington State University. Extension); 315E
- Publisher
- Washington State University Extension; Pullman, Washington
- Identifiers
- 99900503063901842
- Copyright
- Copyright Not Evaluated ; openAccess ; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ ; http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/OpenAccess
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Report