U.S. Department of Agriculture: Agricultural Research Service, Lincoln, Nebraska
Date of this Version
April 1963
Abstract
In the Great Plains area of the United States, stubble-mulch practices have been widely used in the control of soil erosion by wind or water. Although this method of leaving crop residue on the surface has been very effective in combating erosion, depressed plant growth and reduced grain yield have often occurred in wet years. Similar growth problems have been observed during unseasonably cool, wet springs in field experiments at Lincoln, Nebraska. Because increased numbers of certain micro-organisms occur immediately beneath a decomposing surface mulch, the production of phytotoxic compounds under these conditions may well have been associated with the adverse effect on plant growth. In fact, a strain of Penicillium urticae Bainer isolated from stubble-mulch plots at Alliance, Nebraska, has been found to produce a phytotoxic substance when grown in culture media (Norstadt and McCalla 6).
Comments
Published in Plant and Soil XVIII, no. 2.