Cover crop management strategies to increase dry matter production

Abstract

Horticultural soils with a long history of use are losing quality, such as structure and fertility. In a horticultural farm in the green belt of Córdoba, a management trial of a cover crop (CC) was carried out as a predecessor to a commercial crop. The objective was to increase the dry matter of the CC to promote physical and chemical improvements of the soil. In a claysilty loam soil with 1.8 % organic matter, a trial with a 3 complete randomized block design was implemented with two treatments: T1 unfertilized control and T2 nanofertilizer NF (Ca 8.3 %; S 9 %; Si 0.3 %) + humic and fulvic acids HFA (15.6 %). A mixture of crotalaria (Crotalaria juncea) and moha (Setaria italica) was used as summer CC. Moha seeds were pretreated with a mixed inoculant of Bacillus sp. and Trichoderma sp. carried in a biopolymer coating.