Impacts on Soil Health: Evaluation of Individual and Combined Sustainable Soil Management Practices in Fumigated and Non-Fumigated Plasticulture Strawberry Systems in the SE.

Southeastern (SE) strawberry production generally relies on annual fumigation to combat intense disease pressure present in the region and a lack of crop rotation. This combination of management practices overtime directly contributes to losses in soil health.  Previous work has established the value of incorporating sustainable soil management practices like compost, cover crops and beneficial soil inoculants to maintaining long-term soil health. However, this work has generally been limited to organic systems and the use and applicability of sustainable soil management practices in conjunction with fumigation has not been actively studied for the specific plasticulture strawberry systems present in the SE. As such our study investigates the use of compost, a summer cover crop mix (Cowpea var. ‘Iron Clay’(Vigna unguiculata) and Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucumgenus)), and the beneficial soil inoculants of vermicompost and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) as applied individually and in various combinations to both conventionally fumigated and non-fumigated plasticulture strawberry production. Measured indicators of soil health include presence and abundance of AMF, total soil organic matter, soil aggregation, soil nutrients and nematode populations. These indicators were measured prior to the start of our study and following the first field season. Initial results from our on-going field study for these indicators under both fumigation strategies will be presented. Final results from this study will determine what practices contribute the most to these indicators of soil health while maintaining yields in both conventionally managed and organic strawberry production systems in the SE.