HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wisniewski, A. J. Articles by Smith, J. B. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Wisniewski, A. J. Articles by Smith, J. B. Agricola Articles by Wisniewski, A. J. Articles by Smith, J. B.

Restoration of Soil Structure with Redtop and Other Sod Crops¹

ABSTRACT

Water-stable aggregates, soil organic matter, bulk densities, and soil moisture retention at 50-cm. tension were determined for a Bridgehampton silt loam following various treatments involving sod crops in rotation with potatoes and continous potatoes.

An overall positive correlation was found between organic matter and aggregation. Although plots that were in a redtop-potato rotation were significantly better aggregated than those in a red clover-potato rotation and plots in continous potatoes, increased aggregation was not always accompanied by an increase in total soil organic matter. This implied that the type of soil organic matter resulting from the decomposition of redtop is more effective in promoting water-stable aggregates than either the native organic matter or that resulting from the decomposition of other plant residues studied. Potato yields appear to be more a function of aggregation than of total soil organic matter. Some evidence exists that the decomposition of native organic matter has been hastened by the addition of redtop residues. A microscopic examination of aggregates > 5 mm. shows that roots are partly responsible for binding some of the smaller aggregates into larger ones.

Contribution No. 932 of the Rhode Island Agr. Exp. Sta., Kingston, R. I. Presented before Div. IV, Soil Science Society of America, Atlanta, Ga., Nov. 21, 1957. This project was supported in part by funds from a regional research project in cooperation with other experiment stations of the Northeast under Project N.E. 11, Soil Structure Problems in Northeastern Agriculture.

² Assistant Agronomist, Associate Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, and Professor of Agricultural Chemistry, respectively. T. E. Odland, Head, Department of Agronomy, planned and conducted the rotation experiments.

Received for publication January 10, 1958. Accepted for publication March 11, 1958.