Some soil amendments on organic farming

1. ICOAS2015
5THINTERNATIONALCONFERENCEONORGANICAGRICULTURESCIENCES,
14-17OCTOBER2015,BRATISLAVA –SLOVAKIA
Effect of Pre-crops, Cover crops and Manure
Application on Organic Potato Production in a
Field Experiment in eastern Austria
Tsolmon Nyamdavaa
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Department
Sustainable Agricultural Systems

2. Material and Methods
• Trial site: Raasdorf (150 m above sea level,
9.8° C, 520 mm; Calcaric Phaeozem, silty
loam (2.2 % TOC, pH-7.6)
• Preceding crop species: Lucerne, field pea,
spring barley
• Soil amendments: cover crops, farmyard
manure
• Succeeding main crop: Potatoes (Ditta)

3. Material and Methods
Potato yield parameters: Soil parameters:
•Total fresh matter,
marketable, dry matter
yield
•Tuber size distribution,
external and internal
quality
•Water content
•Inorganic N availability
(NO3
- - N and NH4
+ - N)
(in March, up to 90 cm)
Statistical analysis: SPSS software (Version 18.0), ANOVA, Tukey’s
test (α = 0.05 / 0.01)

4. Results
• Soil Nmin content,
potato tuber yield
differed significanty
(P < 0.01) between
years
• No significant
effects by pre-crops
on tuber yield and
quality
Figure 1 Two-way interaction for soil NO3
- - N content
Legend: +CC: with cover crop, -CC without cover crop

5. • Four-way interaction
effect occured for
total tuber yield
• No clear benefits of
cover crops and
manure
• A positive significant
cover crop effect on
large sized tubers
only.
Results
Figure 2. Complete (pre-crop, cover crop. Manure and year)
interaction effect for tuber yield
Legend: +CC: with cover crop, -CC without cover crop

6. Conclusions
• Field pea can be increase the soil Nmin in silty loam
soil in unfavorable year
• Cover crops and manure not consistently enhance
potato tuber yield and quality in a high fertility soil.