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Effect of different cover crops on organic tomato production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2009

Anna Lenzi ,
Daniele Antichi ,
Federica Bigongiali ,
Marco Mazzoncini ,
Paola Migliorini  and
Romano Tesi
Anna Lenzi*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Agronomiche e Gestione del Territorio Agroforestale (DiSAT), University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine 18, 50144 Florence, Italy.
Daniele Antichi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Agronomia e Gestione dell'Agroecosistema (DAGA), University of Pisa, Via S. Michele degli Scalzi 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
Federica Bigongiali
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Agronomia e Gestione dell'Agroecosistema (DAGA), University of Pisa, Via S. Michele degli Scalzi 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
Marco Mazzoncini
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Agronomia e Gestione dell'Agroecosistema (DAGA), University of Pisa, Via S. Michele degli Scalzi 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy.
Paola Migliorini
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Agronomiche e Gestione del Territorio Agroforestale (DiSAT), University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine 18, 50144 Florence, Italy.
Romano Tesi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze Agronomiche e Gestione del Territorio Agroforestale (DiSAT), University of Florence, Piazzale delle Cascine 18, 50144 Florence, Italy.
*
*Corresponding author: anna.lenzi@unifi.it
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Abstract

When animal husbandry is not included in organic farming systems, green manure may be crucial to preserve or increase soil organic matter content and to ensure an adequate N supply to crops. Different species, both legumes and nonlegumes, may be used as cover crops. The present research was carried out to investigate the effect of different green manure crops [oats and barley mixture (Avena sativa L. and Hordeum vulgare L.), rye (Secale cereale L.), brown mustard (Brassica juncea L.), flax (Linum usitatissimum L.), pigeon bean (Vicia faba L. var. minor)] on the production of the following tomato crop. A field trial was conducted for two cropping seasons (2003–2004 and 2004–2005) in a commercial organic farm. The yield of tomato crop was positively affected by pigeon bean, although statistically significant differences in comparison with the other treatments were observed only in 2004–2005, when the experiment was conducted in a less fertile soil. This was probably due mainly to the effect of the pigeon bean cover crop on N availability. In fact, this species, in spite of a lower biomass production than the other cover crops considered in the study, provided the highest N supply and a more evident increase of soil N-NO3. Also, cover crop efficiency, evaluated using the N recovery index, reached higher values in pigeon bean, especially in the second year. The quality of tomato fruits was little influenced by the preceding cover crops. Nevertheless, when tomato followed pigeon bean, fruits showed a lower firmness compared to other cover crops, and in the second year this was associated with a higher fruit N content.

Keywords

organic farmingtomatocover cropsnitrogen
Type
Research Papers
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 92 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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