Abstract

RAIMUNDO, F.; FONSECA, S.; MARTINS, A.  and  MADEIRA, M.. Effect of different soil management systems on soil physical and chemical properties in chestnut orchards of Northern Portugal. Rev. de Ciências Agrárias [online]. 2007, vol.30, n.2, pp.246-261. ISSN 0871-018X.

Several soil physical and chemical properties were evaluated in chestnut groves subjected to several soil management systems: chisel plow, that corresponds to the traditional tillage (MT), disc harrowing (GD), with rainfed seeded pasture (PS), and no-tillage with spontaneous herbaceous vegetation (NM). Obtained results, between 1996 and 2004, showed that soil bulk density was significantly higher in treatments NM and PS than in MT, just after tillage; nevertheless, five months later, it did not show significant differences among treatments. In contrast to the traditional tillage, treatments GD and NM provoked an increment of the penetration resistance in the 0-12 cm soil layer; compaction in treatment GD was less than the treatments NM and PS in the 0-3 cm top soil layer only. N mineral concentration in the 0-15 cm soil layer was lowest in treatment NM, while in the treatment MT showed the highest values mostly in the period after soil tillage. Contents of organic C, extractable P and K, exchangeable acidity and Al, exchangeable bases (Ca, Mg, K), and pH values were not significantly affected by the treatments. Nut production was smaller in MT treatment, mainly during the last three years of the experiment.

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