Effect of organic, sustainable, and conventional management strategies in grower fields on soil physical, chemical, and biological factors and the incidence of southern blight
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Published source details
Liu B., Tu C., Hu S., Gumpertz M. & Ristaino J.B. (2007) Effect of organic, sustainable, and conventional management strategies in grower fields on soil physical, chemical, and biological factors and the incidence of southern blight. Applied Soil Ecology, 37, 202-214.
Published source details Liu B., Tu C., Hu S., Gumpertz M. & Ristaino J.B. (2007) Effect of organic, sustainable, and conventional management strategies in grower fields on soil physical, chemical, and biological factors and the incidence of southern blight. Applied Soil Ecology, 37, 202-214.
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This study is summarised as evidence for the following.
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A replicated site comparison study in 2001-2003 on a range of soil types in North Carolina, USA (Liu et al. 2007) found higher functional diversity in soil bacterial communities on organic farms(average Shannon diversity index of 2.63) compared to sustainable (index of 2.44) and conventional (index of 2.39) farms. Of the 10 arable farms sampled, three were organic (no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers), three were sustainable (synthetic fertilizers but no pesticides) and four were conventional (synthetic fertilizers and pesticides). Three locations on each farm were sampled taking multiple soil cores. Each of the farm types encompassed a range of soils but all included farms with loamy sand soils. Additional soil types were clay loam with sand (on one organic farm), silt loam (one conventional and one sustainable farm) and clay with rock (one sustainable farm).
