Soil Physico-chemical Properties of Organic Grapes Farms with Different Culture Facilities and Soil Management Practices

Organic grape was generally produced in rainshield or plastic greenhouse culture while most of fruits were produced in open field. But little attention has been given to soil properties with different culture facilities in organic grape cultivation. This study was conducted to investigate soil physico-chemical properties of organic grapes farms with different culture facilities and soil management practices. Organic fertilizer was main resource to manage soil at organic grapes farms. Organic grapes farms were applied with total amount of organic fertilizer at one time, either at basal or additional fertilization, whereas conventional grapes farms applied with split fertilization. Bulk density and penetration resistance of soil were lower at both rainshield and green manure-applied plastic greenhouse cultures than those at clean plastic greenhouse culture. Especially, in plastic greenhouse, sod culture with natural weed after green manure application was more effective than general sod culture in improving physical properties of the rhizosphere. The contents of organic matter, available phosphate and exchangeable potassium tended to increase in the soils applied with green manure, and the difference of soil chemical properties were significant between rainshield and plastic greenhouse cultures. The optimum soil management was required in plastic greenhouse because pH, available phosphate and exchangeable cations reached over optimum range. Consequently, the ground cover management is the key factor to affect the chemical properties as well as soil physical properties extensively in plastic greenhouse. It is found that sod culture with natural weed after green manure application resulted in enhancement of utilization efficiency of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potassium in soil in comparison with general sod culture.