College - Author 1
College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences
Department - Author 1
Plant Sciences Department
Degree Name - Author 1
BS in Agricultural and Environmental Plant Sciences
Date
2-2024
Primary Advisor
Shashika Hewavitharana, College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences, Plant Sciences Department
Abstract/Summary
California strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa Duch.) bring in ~3 billion yearly for the state's economy. Strawberry growers use fumigants like chloropicrin and metam sodium to manage a variety of soilborne diseases in conventional production. The yield-boosting effects of fumigation on strawberries are often attributed to disease management, but the ‘fertilizer effect’ from mineralization may play an equally significant role. This experiment conducted in a grower field sought to find out the influence that fumigation had on the mineralization of soil organic nitrogen and if preplant fertilizer application affected early season nitrogen (N). There were six treatments: control, control with controlled release fertilizer (CRF), metam sodium, metam sodium with CRF, chloropicrin, chloropicrin with CRF. Every treatment had three replications, each on a 107 m strawberry bed with a 3 m sampling plot within. The CRF treatments received 47.6 kg/ha-1 of N. The experiment took place on the west side of Santa Maria, California in sandy loam soil. In each experimental unit, ten samples were taken at a 15.2 cm depth and mixed. Every soil sample was measured for gravimetric water content, ammonium (ppm), nitrate (ppm). Soil samples were taken before fumigation on September 19, 2023, and again 14, 21, and 28 days after fumigation. Fumigation was associated with an increase in ammonium but showed no difference between the control for nitrate and total N. Fertilizer showed no significant associations with any response variable. The results provide a foundation for future research and give insight on CRF release in the early season.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/plantscisp/2