title: [Effects of soil surface mulching on solar greenhouse grafted and own-rooted cucumber growth and soil environment].
abstract: The study on the effects of different soil surface mulching models, including wheat straw mulching (WS), plastic film mulching (PF), and wheat straw plus plastic film mulching (WP), on the growth of solar greenhouse grafted and own-rooted cucumber and on soil environment showed that soil surface mulching not only increased the individuals of pistillate flower, improved its differentiation and development, shortened fruit-developing period, increased fruit weight, reduced fruit malformation percentage, but also raised total yield. Among the test mulching models, WP was better than WS and PF, and the effects were superior on grafted than on own-rooted cucumber. Soil surface mulching also had considerable effects on soil environment, but the effects varied with different modules. For example, under field condition, the diurnal change of soil temperature was a single-peak curve, with its peak higher and appeared at 14:30 in 5 cm and 10 cm soil depth, but lower and appeared later in deeper soil layers. In this study, WS lowered the maximum soil temperature and raised the minimum soil temperature, making soil temperature quite stable, while PF raised the maximum soil temperature much higher and enhanced the minimum soil temperature less than WS and WP, making the largest variation range of soil temperature. WP played a role of raising soil temperature and kept it stable. Similar to the diurnal change of soil temperature at 5 cm and 10 cm depth, that of soil respiration rate was also a single-peak curve. The soil respiration rate in all treatmentg was significantly higher than that of CK, and WP had a higher soil respiration rate than PF and WS. There was a significant positive correlation between soil respiration rate and soil temperature at 5 cm and 10 cm depth. By the end of the experiment, soil bulk density at the depth of 0-20 cm was measured, which was significantly lower in WS and WP than in CK and PF. The difference in soil bulk density was gradually inconspicuous with soil layer deepened.
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Soil and Water Conservation and Ecological Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Education, Yangling 712100, China. zhaisheng749402@163.com
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhai
authors.forename: Yinli
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Juyuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods; D018533:Biomass; D018553:Cucumis sativus / Q000254:growth & development*; D017753:Ecosystem; D012987:Soil / Q000032:analysis*; D013472:Sunlight; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D012987:Soil