Implementing Crop Rotation with Controlled Release Fertilizer to Improve Vegetable Production

摘要

Crop rotation is an important practice in cropping system to improve the efficacy of soil nutrient uptake and pest management. However, a long-term rotation scheme is not feasible in south Florida because of high land value pressure and market demand.To help vegetable growers improve their crop yield and quality, a field trial was carried out at the Experimental Farm at University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC) in Homestead. Sweet corn was grown in rotation with green beans during the same growing season associated with a Controlled Release Fertilizer (CRF) compared with a conventional fertilizer. Sweet corn was grown first, then the field was split in half to grow either greenbeans or a second crop of sweet corn. After green beans were harvested [58 days after seeding (DAS)], sweet corn and beans were planted again in split plots. Therefore, the rotation sequences were: sweet corn-beans-sweet corn, sweet corn-beans^beans, and sweet corn-sweet corn, respectively, in one growing season. The results showed that the application of CRF produced significantly higher yield than the conventional fertilizer; the crop rotation improved yields of both beans and sweet corn; and occurrences of insects and diseases seemed lower with the rotation as compared with no rotation (a mono crop). Therefore, this result may provide vegetable growers an option to optimize their cropping systems and farming practices for sustainable agriculture insouth Florida.