Row-interrow management on apple orchard in the Friendly Fruit project.

06/06/2019

On this video, the inter-row cover is being mown and blown in the row, in Gotheron apple orchard (St-Marcel-lès-Valence, France).  Then, it will be incorporated in soil to increase C-sequestration. 

Experiments are conducted at INRA in Gotheron (St-Marcel-lès-Valence, France) in the frame of the Friendly Fruit project. 

In the Friendly Fruit project there is a specific task aiming to optimize the cover  management on the tree row in order to:

- avoid herbicide use
- increase carbon inputs into the soil and organic carbon concentration 
- optimize mechanization. 

These experiments aim to define the best practice combination in regards of environmental impact reduction and work organization to preserve soil and biodiversity by alternate mowing and mulching, as well as the re-use of residues as a living mulch.

In this trial, we compare 3 different modalities of row-interrow management, to define the best practices able to optimize C-sequestration:

- Control with spontaneous species and mechanical weeding on the row
- Full grass cover with spontaneous species
- Grass/legume mix on the alley and new mechanical mowing on the inter-row and weeding in the row (cf. above video)