It is commonly presumed that organic agriculture causes only minimalenvironmental pollution. In this study, we measured the quality ofpercolating water in the vadose zone, underlying both organic andconventional intensive greenhouses. Our study was conducted in newlyestablished farms where the subsurface underlying the greenhouses has beenmonitored continuously from their establishment. Surprisingly, intensiveorganic agriculture relying on solid organic matter, such as composted manurethat is implemented in the soil prior to planting as the sole fertilizer,resulted in significant down-leaching of nitrate through the vadose zone to the groundwater.On the other hand, similar intensive agriculture that implemented liquidfertilizer through drip irrigation, as commonly practiced in conventionalagriculture, resulted in much lower rates of pollution of the vadose zone andgroundwater. It has been shown that accurate fertilization methods thatdistribute the fertilizers through the irrigation system, according to plantdemand, during the growing season dramatically reduce the potential forgroundwater contamination from both organic and conventional greenhouses.
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