H. V. Sing

Regional Agricultural Research sub Station, SKUAST-K, Kargil, India
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 8   doi: 10.5376/ijh.2013.03.0008
Received: 31 Jan., 2013    Accepted: 07 Feb., 2013    Published: 18 Feb., 2013

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Singh H.V., 2013, Soil carbon sequestration and rhizospheric microbial population in apricot orchards following plastic film mulching under cold arid region, International Journal of Horticulture, 3(8): 35-41 (doi: 10.5376/ijh.2013.03.0008)

The study of agricultural management practices on rhizospheric microbial population and phytomass carbon sequestration in apricot orchard in cold arid region is conducted. Plastic mulching conserved the soil moisture and stabilized rhizospheric temperature of apricot which enhanced the microbial activity in the rhizosphere and plant growth of apricot. Significantly higher soil moisture conservation (19.75) per cent in July, maximum microbial population of fungi (15.36 cfu/gx10_⁴ cfu/g soil) and bacteria (11.45 cfu/gx10_⁶ cfu/g soil) in month of September and enhances in plant growth (17.73) per cent at end of season recorded in red plastic mulch with mulch size 1.5 m x1.5 m. Active plant growth phase of apricot plant also influence the microbial activity. All the plastic mulch found better in producing phytomass than control. Increased plastic mulch increases microbial growth, plant biomass and carbon sequestration in cold arid region.

Apricot; Carbon sequestration; Cold arid; Microbial population; Plant growth; Plastic mulch; Rhizosphere