The Effects of Different Cattle Manure Levels and Branch Management Methods on Organic Production of Cucurbita pepo L.

摘要

To study the effects of different cattle manure levels and two branch management methods on organic production of Schneider squash, a field experiment was conducted during years 2005 and 2006. Treatments consisted of four manure levels (10, 15, 20, 25tons ha~(-1)) and two branch management methods (with and without wood pole), which were allocated to main plots and subplots, respectively. Results showed that branch management method without wood pole was better than branch management method with wood pole. The first year results showed that increase of manure level had significant effect on fruit and seed yields. However, these traits were not Significantly affected by manure levels in the second year. For both years, there were no differences in seed numbers due to manure levels. Seed oil content was slightly increased when manure level was increased from 10 to 25 tons ha~(-1) . This study showed that use of 20 tons ha~(-1) cattle manure is a suitable organic production system of Schneider squashwhich give a suitable yield with high seed oil content, without using chemical fertilizers.