Organic Eprints frontpage
 about    browse    search    register    user area    help 

9887: Assessment of selected soil parameters in a long-term Western Canadian organic field experiment

Entz, Martin; Welsh, Cathy; Tenuta, Mario; Chen, Yu Ying; Nelson, Alison and Froese, Jane (2007) Assessment of selected soil parameters in a long-term Western Canadian organic field experiment . Paper presented at 3rd QLIF Congress: Improving Sustainability in Organic and Low Input Food Production Systems, University of Hohenheim, Germany, March 20-23, 2007.

Full text available as:
PDF - Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader or other PDF viewer.

Summary

A long-term field study was used to compare soil nitrogen and phosphorous status, and soil aggregate stability in organic and conventional cropping systems. Two rotations were tested: a grain only and a grain-alfalfa hay rotation. The organic systems had a lower nitrate leaching potential than the same rotations under conventional management. After 13 years, one organic system (the grain-alfalfa; no manure return) is suffering serious soil P depletion. However, the grain only and the grain-alfalfa with manure return to land systems had soil P levels similar to the prairie grass control treatment and showed no signs of P deficiency. Despite having lower levels of organic carbon, the organic soils had higher levels of wet aggregate stability than conventionally managed soils.

Document Language:English
Keywords:nitrogen, phosphorous, mycorrhiza, aggregate stability
Subject Areas: Crop husbandry > Production systems
Research affiliation: International Conferences > QLIF Congress 2007 > 3 Crop production / soil management
Total budget (Euro):0
Orgprints ID Number:9887
Contact:Entz, Dr. Martin H.
Deposited On:07 March 2007
EPrint Type:Conference paper
Published?:Published
Type of presentation:Paper
Peer Review Status:Not peer-reviewed
Additional Publishing Information: The final version of this paper is published in:
Niggli, Urs; Leifert, Carlo; Alföldi, Thomas; Lück, Lorna and Willer, Helga, Eds. (2007) Improving Sustainability in Organic and Low Input Food Production Systems. Proceedings of the 3rd International Congress of the European Integrated Project Quality Low Input Food (QLIF). University of Hohenheim, Germany, March 20 – 23, 2007. Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, CH-Frick.http://orgprints.org/10417/
Printed copies may be ordered from the FiBL Shop at www.shop.fibl.org.

Archive Staff Only: edit this record