Effects of soil managements on soil physical and chemical properties of the apple orchard in the South of Xinjiang

In order to provide information of soil management mode in apple orchards, a field experiment was conducted with different treatments in the South of Xingiang. Treatments of the experiment included covering with straw, notillage, grass interplanted and clean tillage (CK) in apple orchards, respectively. The results of this study indicated that the treatments reduced the soil bulk density and increased the soil porosity in the certain extent compared with CK. The order of soil water contents under different treatments were covering with strawgrass interplantednotillageCK. The three treatments all increased the soil organic matter contents in 0-40 cm soil layers. The soil organic matter of the top soil layer was increased more significantly than that of the deeper soil layer. Soil available nutrients with treatments were higher than that with CK, but the total nitrogen content with grass interplanted decreased compared with CK in 0-20 cm soil layers. The order of total nitrogen contents of soil under different treatments were notillagecovering with strawCKgrass interplanted. The changes of total phosphorus and potassium contents in soil were similar, in which were grass interplantednotillagecovering with strawCK. The effects on the surface soil layer were more significantly.