Sustainable apricot orchard management to improve soil fertility and water use efficiency

This 4-year on-farm study reports the effects of different agricultural practices on yield and carbon input in an apricot orchard grown in Mediterranean area. Groups of plants under local orchard management (LOM) practices (i.e., soil tillage, removing of pruning residues, mineral fertilisers) were compared with plots under sustainable orchard management (SOM) actions (i.e., cover crop, no-tillage, compost application, mulching of pruning residues). In the SOM blocks, fertilization was based on plant demand and soil availability and irrigation volumes were calculated on the evapotranspiration values basis, while in the LOM plots fertilization and irrigation were empirically managed. Results show that yield was enhanced by 28% by SOM. In comparison with LOM plots, changed practices increased the amount of N, P, K annually incorporated into soil thus increasing their reservoir in the soil. The study demonstrates that appropriate crop management can increase the mean annual carbon soil inputs from about 1.5 t ha-1 to 9.0 t ha-1 per year.