PWT Soil Health: Vegetable Production Systems

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Soil Health Assessment, Management and Outreach
in New York
(http//www.hort.cornell.edu/soilhealth/)
George S. Abawi on behalf of the Cornell Soil
Health Team
Department of Plant Pathology gsa1_at_cornell.edu Gen
eva, NY 14456
AFB 2007 Annual Meeting Jan. 2007
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Soil erosion, crusting, leaching, etc.
Pests, diseases and weeds
Soil compaction
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Soil Health Concept
Emphasizing the integration of biological with
chemical and physical measures of soil quality as
they affect grower profits and the environment
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Functions of Soil Organisms

• Decomposition of organic matter
• Mineralization and recycling of nutrients
• Fixation of nitrogen
• Detoxification of pollutants
• Maintenance of soil structure
• Biological suppression of plant pests
• Parasitism and damage to plants

P.R. August
G. Vrdoljak
Healthy soils have a large highly diverse
population of beneficial organisms but only small
population of active plant pests.
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How do we measure soil health?

• pH
• organic matter
• Cation exchange capacity
• Total carbon nitogen
• Macronutrients
• Micronutrients
• Heavy metals, toxins
• Etc.

• Aggregate stability
• Water infiltration rate
• H2O holding capacity
• Pore size distribution
• Soil penetrometer resistance
• Soil texture / taxonomy
• Etc.

• Disease suppressive capacity of the soil
• Specific pathogens (e.g., pathogenic nematodes)
• Specific beneficials (e.g., earthworms,
  mycorrhizal fungi, free-living nematodes)
• Rate of microbial N cycling
• Decomposition rate
• Etc.

• Active carbon
• Respiration
• DNA profiles

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Suggested management approaches
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Tillage
Crop rotation
Cover crops
Organic amendments
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The Gates Farm
NYSAES, Geneva, NY
Tillage x cover crop x rotation integrated
research site
Strip-till
Plow till
No cover
Vetch cover
Rye cover
No-till
REP 3
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Project Accomplishments and
Outreach...

• Soil sampling and Tier I soil health assessment
  protocol
• Auto-generated grower-friendly report
• Long-term multidisciplinary research sites
• Soil health assessment training manual
• Soil health website
• Extensive outreach

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Acknowledgements
Cornell Soil Health Team (partial list)

• Project Coordinator John Idowu
• Research Labs
• David Wolfe
• George Abawi
• Harold van Es
• Janice Thies
• Renuka Rao
• Cornell Cooperative Extension Educators
• New York Grower Cooperators

Funding Sources NE-SARE NYS/CU IPM FFF Hatch
Program CCE/Smith-Lever NNY Ag Markets
Program