Monoculture and Mixture Effects of Green Manure Crops on Soil Quality, Weed Suppression and Organic Red-pepper Production

One of the problems for cultivating crops in the mountainous highland is soil erosion and nutrients runoff. Alternative cropping ways were searched to reduce soil erosion and to ensure farm income in the mountainous highland agricultural region. Three edible wild plants including goatsbeard, Korean thistle, and aster, were selected to test as alternative crops to reduce soil erosion in mountain agriculture of highland area. In the first year, the soil losses from the alternative cropping were 26 to 63 percents of the soil loss from summer radish cultivated by conservation tillage with contour and plastic film mulching. The relative soil losses in the second year ranged from 2.8 to 5.5 percents in comparison with radish cultivation. Rapid surface coverage contributed to successive soil loss protection by these alternative crops. Farm net profit of these crops was greater than that of radish. Monitoring of yields of Korean thistle or aster for further experiments, however, might be necessary for economic cultivation due to yield reduction caused by consecutive production.

Three Alternative Crops to Reduce Soil Erosion for Mountain Agriculture

Kim¹,

Seo²,

Kim³

et al. 2011

Measurement of Phosphorus in Soil and Water

Kim

Hwang²,

Chung³

2011

The relative focus about phosphorus (P) which causes eutrophication characterized by increased growth of undesirable algae has increased in recent years. Phosphorus forms in soil and water include both organic and inorganic forms. There are also a large number of soil P determination methods that have been designed to account for various types of P and mechanisms controlling the chemistry of P in soil, water, and residual materials for environmentally relevant forms of P. However, phosphorus forms in soil, water, and residual materials are also difficult to standardize with any reasonable consensus, due to the number of different disciplines involved. Hence, it is essential to accurately define how P can be measured in soil, water, or residual material samples to avoid potential misinterpretations or inappropriate recommendations in determining amount and types of P. Therefore, we reviewed the testing methods which have appeared in the scientific literature to provide an overview of the soil test P most commonly used.

Release Pattern of Urea from Metal-urea-clay Hybrid with Montmorillonite and Its Impact on Soil Property

Kim¹,

Choi²,

Lee³

et al. 2011

Urea intercalated into montmorillonite (MT) exhibits remarkably enhanced N use efficiency, maintaining its fast effectiveness. This study dealt with the release property of urea from metal-urea-clay hybrid with MT (MUCH) under continuous-flow conditions and the cumulative impacts of its successive application on physicochemical properties of soils. Releases of urea were completed within 4 hrs under continuous-flow condition regardless of the types and the leaching solutions. However, urea release property was significantly affected by both the form of fertilizer and the presence of electrolytes in solution. The fast release property of urea from MUCH in continuous-flow condition was not significantly affected by soil properties such as soil pH and soil texture. In addition, its successive application did not lead to any noticeable change in soil physicochemical properties, water stable aggregate rate, water holding capacity and cation exchange capacity in both sandy loam and clay loam soils. Therefore, this study strongly supported that urea intercalated into MT could be applied as fast-effective N fertilizer, in particular for additional N supply.