What are the benefits of planting green manure in orchards?

Weeds in agriculture were originally members of the earth's biological family. However, for a long time, in order to prevent weeds from harming the growth and fruit of fruit trees, people have tried their best to eliminate weeds, such as clearing and chemical weeding, while ignoring their extremely important ecological, resource and economic values. It is necessary for us to fundamentally eliminate the traditional concept of completely eradicating weeds in farmland, protect weeds as much as possible while controlling weeds in orchards, and maintain the biodiversity and ecological balance of orchards.

First, the benefits of orchard grass

1, increasing soil organic matter content.

For a long time, the extensive use of chemical fertilizers in orchards has caused soil hardening, acid-base imbalance and fertility decline, which is the main reason for the decline of fruit quality. Green crops have developed roots, vigorous growth on the ground and rich organic matter. After ploughing, soil physical and chemical properties can be improved and soil fertility can be improved. According to the test, the soil organic matter under 5- 10 cm mulch is higher than that under the condition of grass 1%. The best grass should be shade-tolerant leguminous grass, such as clover, sweet clover, vetch seed, small crown flower and so on. It is a green manure crop with strong nitrogen fixation, easy decomposition and vigorous growth.

2. Keep the soil moist

The maintenance of soil moisture by green manure crops is mainly realized by living plants to reduce the evaporation of soil moisture between rows, absorb and adjust the supply balance of surface water in rainfall, and mow and cover trees to form grass mulch when they grow vigorously. According to the experiment, under the condition of mulching, the soil water loss is only 1/3 of that of clear tillage, and after 5 years of mulching, the soil water is 70% more than that of clear tillage on average.

3. Extend the activity time of fruit tree roots.

Planting grass in orchard can increase the ground temperature in spring, and promote the root system to enter the growth period 15-30 days earlier than that in clean tillage garden; Reduce the surface temperature in hot summer to ensure the vigorous growth of fruit tree roots; After entering the late autumn, increasing the soil temperature and prolonging the root activity by about 1 month has a very good effect on increasing the storage nutrients of trees and enriching flower buds. Covering the ground with grass in winter can reduce the thickness of frozen soil layer, increase the ground temperature, and reduce and prevent root freezing injury.

4. Improve the microclimate of the orchard.

Due to the improvement of soil physical and chemical properties by green manure crops, the performance of water, fertilizer, gas and heat in the soil is coordinated, and the air humidity in the orchard is improved. The orchard is cooler in high temperature season in summer, which is very beneficial to the growth and development of fruit trees and helps to reduce the occurrence of sunburn.

5. Grass has a good loosening effect.

Compared with clearing land in orchard, grass mulching has good soil physical properties, such as loose and fragile soil, good air permeability and good water permeability, which can keep the soil structure stable, prevent soil erosion, facilitate earthworm reproduction and promote the formation of soil water-stable solid particle structure.

6, reduce costs, reduce labor intensity, improve efficiency.

According to the experiment, planting grass, mowing and ploughing in orchard can reduce weeding labor by about 60% and greatly reduce labor intensity compared with cleaning. In addition, because mulching improves soil physical properties, improves soil fertility and increases soil organic matter content, it can reduce the application amount of commercial fertilizer and farmyard manure and improve fertilizer utilization rate. All these have reduced the production cost.

7. Improve fruit quality

Due to the increase of air humidity and temperature difference between day and night, the fruit coloring rate increases, the sugar content is large, and the fruit hardness and storage resistance are also obviously improved. Especially in bagged orchards, fruits are most susceptible to high temperature and dryness after bagging, and the surface of fruits is prone to sunburn and cracking. Planting grass in orchard can effectively avoid and prevent the above phenomenon and improve the appearance quality of fruit.

Second, the misunderstanding about orchard grass.

There are some misunderstandings in planting grass in orchards: First, many fruit farmers are afraid of being laughed at because of their face. The second is mistaken for the competition between grass and fruit trees for fertilizer and water. In fact, the concentrated distribution layer of fruit tree roots is 20-40 cm underground, while the distribution layer of grass roots is about 10 cm, so the conflict with fruit trees on fertilizer and water is very light. Even if it absorbs some nutrients and water, the nutrients made by grass are far greater than what it absorbs.

Third, the specific practice of planting grass

1, the first choice of orchard grass is the grass of Jiahe Garden.

2. Don't mow the grass every year, use grass to control the grass and improve the orchard soil.