Growth of green manures under greenhouse: development of a plant selection for a sustainable soil management in Central Spain

The application of green manure in agrarian soils is becoming a sustainable tool to improve soil quality and plant pathogen management. One of the expected characteristics of a plant to be used as a potential green manure is to produce a minimum amount of biomass in order to have sufficient material to perform their role adequately. Green manure management was selected to be included in a crop rotation in order to improve yield and sanitary properties. Five species were chosen due their beneficial properties: Brassica carinata cv Eleven, Camelina sativa cv Beemelina, Pisum sativum cv Viriato, Raphanus sativus cv Melody, and Tagetes patula cv Helen. Four replicates of each treatment were established. Seeds were sown after summer crop so that they grew enough to be applied as green manure before the establishment of the winter crop, Swiss chard. A seeded green manure planting scale has been developed to assess differences in germination when plants are at the 3-4 true leaf stage. The best growth and development was shown by R. sativus, probably due to its higher tolerance to thermic stress. After three seasons, the selected moment of implantation, right after the summer crop, showed a good performance of the selected green manures.

 

Operational programme FEDER 2021-2027 Castilla-La Mancha: Development of strategies for mitigation and adaptation of agricultural soils to climate change