• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.963-974
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• 2015

This study was conducted to determine the effects of organic vegetable cultivation on the soil physical properties in 33 farmlands under plastic greenhouse in Korea. We were investigated 5~8 farms per organic vegetable crops during the period from August to November 2014. The main cultivated vegetables were leafy lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), Perilla leaves (Perilla frutescens var. Japonica Hara), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), strawberry (Fragaria ananassa L.) and tomato (Lycopersicon spp.). We have analyzed soil physical properties. The measured soil physical parameters were soil plough layer, soil hardness, penetration resistance, three soil phase, bulk density and Porosity. The measurement of the soil plough layer, soil hardness and penetration resistance were carried out direct in the fields, and the samples for other parameters were taken using the soil core method with approximately 20 mm diameter core collected from each organic vegetable field. Soil plough layer was average 36 cm and ranged between 30 and 50 cm, and slightly different depending on the sorts of vegetable cultivation. The soil hardness was $0.17{\pm}0.15{\sim}1.34{\pm}1.02$ in the topsoil, $0.55{\pm}0.34{\sim}1.15{\pm}0.62$ in the subsoil. It was not different between topsoil and subsoil, but showed a statistically significant difference between the leafy and fruit vegetables. Penetrometer resistance is one of the important soil physical properties that can determine both root elongation and yield. The increase in density under leafy vegetables resulted in a higher soil penetrometer resistance. Soil is a three-component system comprised of solid, liquid, and gas phases distributed in a complex geometry that creates large solidliquid, liquid-gas, and gas-solid interfacial areas. The three soil phases were dynamic and typically changed in organic vegetable soils under greenhouse. Porosity was characterized as range of $54.2{\pm}2.2{\sim}60.3{\pm}2.4%$. Most measured soils have bulk densities between 1.0 and $1.6gcm^{-3}$. To summarize the above results, Soil plough layer has been deepened in organic vegetable cultivation soils. Solid hardness (the hardness of the soil) and bulk density (suitable for the soil unit mass) have been lowered. Porosity (soil spatial content) was high such as a well known in organic farmlands. Important changes were observed in the physical properties according to the different vegetable cultivation. We have demonstrated that the physical properties of organic cultivated soils under plastic greenhouse were improved in the results of this study.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.241-248
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• 1993

An experiment was conducted in 1990~1991 to study the effects of various soil amelioration on the soil productivity and machine workability at tidal land paddy field of Kyewhado Substation, Homam Crop Experiment Station. The soil, Munpo Series(fine sandy loam, Typic Fluvaquents) was treated with gipsum, rice straw, rice straw compost and foreign soil(at 20cm depth) after deep ploughing. The results are surmerized as follows. 1. Sand and clay were slightly increased, while silt was slightly decreased in the rice straw and compost plots. The soil texture was changed from loam to sand loam by the addition of foreign soil 2. Soil bulk density and porosity was decreased in the rice straw, compost and foreign soil addition plots. 3. Cone penetration resistance was $12.5kg/cm^2$ at 10cm of soil depth before experiment and $12.5kg/cm^2$ at 20cm of soil depth after experiment except control, and the root zone was expended down to 20cm. 4. Soil salt content before experiment was 0.46 and 0.48% for surface soil(10cm) and subsoil(20cm), respectively ; The salt content of ameliorated plot was 0.26~0.32% and 0.16~0.31%, respectively, indicating good leaching of soil salt by the soil improvements. 5. The yields of rice in different treatments were in the order of the foreign soil addition > compost > gypsum > rice straw > control.