Oakes Irrigation Research
Site
Carrington Research Extension Center * North Dakota State University
P.O. Box 531, Oakes, ND 58474-0531, Voice: (701) 742-2189, FAX: (701)
742-2700, email: rgreenla@ndsuext.nodak.edu
NEWSPAPER MULCH STUDY, 1996
Richard G Greenland
It is estimated that 40 to 50% of the garbage that goes into landfills is paper. Much of this paper could be recycled to make new paper or reused for other purposes. One possible use of the paper is as a mulch to aid in vegetable production. This has many advantages. The paper would add organic matter to soils, which would increase aggregate stability, cation exchange capacity, and water holding capacity, while decreasing erosion and compaction. The mulch has also been shown to control weeds. Immobilization of soil N by the mulch is a possible disadvantage. The effect of a chopped newspaper mulch on tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, sweet corn, cabbage, and buttercup squash was observed in this study.
Table 70. Previous crop, planting, and harvest information.
Table 71. Seedbed preparation.
Table 72. Fertilizer, pest control, and harvest dates.
Table 73. Soil nitrate-N and soil organic matter responses to added newspaper.
Table 74. Soil nitrate-N and soil organic matter responses to previous crop.
Table 75. Vegetable crop yield responses to newspaper mulch.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Soil: | Embden sandy loam. Soil samples taken of top 6 inches on April 23 and 24. |
Previous Crops: | See Table 70 for 1995 and 1994; 1993 - field corn. |
Planting: | All vegetables were direct seeded except tomatoes, which were transplanted. See Table 70 for information on dates, rates, and row spacings. |
Plots: | Plots were 6 ft wide by 20 ft long. The study had 4 reps and was arranged as a randomized complete block. Each vegetable was a separate experiment. |
Fertilizer: | On April 17, broadcast 14 lbs N/acre and 70 lbs P2O5/acre as 10-50-0, 16 lbs N/acre and 19 lbs S/acre as 21-0-0-24, and 94 lbs K20/acre as 0-0-60. Additional fertilizer applications are given in Table 72. |
Irrigation: | Overhead sprinkler irrigation as needed. |
Paper mulch: | Treatments were 0, 2, 4, and 6 tons of paper mulch/acre. Applied to all crops on July 1. |
RESULTS
Adding newspaper mulch for two years did not affect soil organic matter content or soil nitrate-N level. Soil nitrate-N was lower when sweet corn was the previous crop. Soil organic matter was higher when carrot or cabbage was the previous crop. This may be misleading for carrots because all of the carrots were not harvested from the plots in the fall of 1995. Using newspaper mulch did not affect the yield of any vegetable except cabbage. The higher the rate of newspaper mulch the lower the cabbage yield.
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Table 70. Previous crop, planting, and harvest information for the newspaper mulch study 1996.
Vegetable | Previous crops1 | Planting date | Planting rate | Row spacing | Harvest date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
cabbage | tomato sweet corn |
May 1 | 56,000 seeds/acre (later thinned to 28,000 plants/acre) | 16 inches | Sept 26 |
carrot | squash potato |
May 16 | 500,000 seeds/acre | paired rows (3" apart) on 16" centers |
Sept 25 |
sweet corn | cabbage tomato |
May 21 | 50,000 seeds/acre (later thinned to 34,000 plants/acre) | 24 inches | Aug 26 & Aug 30 |
potato | carrot quash |
May 13 | 1 piece/ft | 3 feet | Oct 21 |
squash | potato carrot |
May 21 | 1 seed/ft (later thinned to 1 plant/3 ft) | 6 feet | Oct 9 |
tomato | sweet corn cabbage |
May 30 | 4 plants/3 ft | double row (2 ft apart) on 6 ft centers |
Aug 12 to Aug 29 |
1First crop listed is 1995, second is 1994.
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Table 71. Newspaper recycle study seedbed preparation.
Vegetable | Date | Operation | Purpose |
All | April 26 |
disk | initial tillage of entire newspaper recycle study |
carrot |
April 24 |
subsoil disk(twice) |
breakup hardpan and make channels
for root growth incorporate fertilizer and herbicide |
cabbage | May 1 |
disk(twice) | incorporate fertilizer and herbicide |
squash | May 21 |
disk | incorporate fertilizer |
tomato | May 30 |
disk | incorporate fertilizer |
potato | May 7 |
disk | incorporate fertilizer |
sweet corn | May 20 |
disk | incorporate fertilizer |
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Table 72. Fertilizer, pest control, and harvest dates for the newspaper mulch study.
Vegetable | Fertilizer |
Pest control | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Rate |
Date | Control | |
cabbage |
April 29 June 21 July 1 |
35 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 75 lbs N/acre as urea 55 lbs N/acre as urea |
May 1 May 1 June 17, July 1 June 11 July 12, 26, 31 |
Treflan (1 pt/acre) Devrinol (2 lbs/acre) hand weed Poast (2 pts/acre + COC) Asana (8 oz/acre) |
carrot |
April 29 June 21 July 1 |
35 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 75 lbs N/acre as urea 55 lbs N/acre as urea |
May 1 July 1 June 11 July 12, 26, 31 |
Treflan (1 pt/acre) hand weed Poast (2 pts/acre + COC) Asana (8 oz/acre) |
sweet corn |
April 29 June 21 July 1 |
35 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 75 lbs N/acre as urea 50 lbs N/acre as urea |
May 21 June 18 July 1 July 9, 12, 31 |
Dual (2 pts/acre) Atrazine (0.6 lb/acre + Lentagran (1.9 lb/acre) hand weed Asana (8 oz/acre) |
potatoes |
April 29 July 1 |
35 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 110 lbs N/acre as urea |
May 21 June 10, 17 June 4 Jun 26, July 8, 12, 31 July 16, 24 July 16, Aug 6 July 34, Aug 21 |
Dragged off Hilled Prowl (1.8 pts/acre), Dual (2 pts/acre), Matrix (1 oz/acre) Asana (8 oz/acre) Sevin (2 qt/acre) Manzate (2 lbs/acre) Bravo (1.5 pts/acre) |
squash |
April 29 July 1 |
35 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 71 lbs N/acre as urea |
June 17, July 1 July 9, 12, 31 |
hand weed Asana (8 oz/acre) |
tomatoes |
April 29 July 1 |
35 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 90 lbs N/acre as urea |
May 31 June 11 June 17 July 30 July 12, 31 |
Treflan (1 pt/acre) Poast (2 pt/acre + COC) hand weed Fusilade (1 pt/acre) + Penetrate II (1 pt/25 gal) Asana (8 oz/acre) |
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Table 73. Soil nitrate-N and soil organic matter responses to added newspaper.
Newspaper treatment | Nitrate-N | Organic matter |
tons/acre | ppm | % |
0 | 34 | 2.3 |
2 | 29 | 2.4 |
4 | 30 | 2.3 |
6 | 32 | 2.3 |
C.V. (%) | 41 | 4 |
Note: newspaper treatments did not cause any significant differences in nitrate-N or organic matter.
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Table 74. Soil nitrate-N and soil organic matter responses to previous crop.
1994 crop | 1995 crop | Nitrate-N | Organic matter |
ppm |
% |
||
tomato | cabbage | 37 | 2.6 |
squash | carrot | 29 | 2.6 |
carrot | potato | 41 | 2.1 |
potato | squash | 35 | 2.3 |
cabbage | sweet corn | 18 | 2.1 |
sweet corn | tomato | 29 | 2.3 |
LSD (0.05) | 9 | 0.3 | |
C.V. (%) | 41 | 4 |
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Table 75. Vegetable crop yield responses to newspaper mulch.
Newspaper treatment | Cabbage | Carrot | Potato | Sweet corn | Tomato |
tons/acre | tons/acre | tons/acre | cwt/acre | tons/acre | tons/acre |
0 | 66.2 a1 | 27.7 | 344 | 10.5 | 16.5 |
2 | 62.6 a | 36.8 | 270 | 9.5 | 17.9 |
4 | 58.0 ab | 44.7 | 259 | 10.5 | 18.8 |
6 | 49.1 b | 32.8 | 302 | 9.9 | 20.8 |
C.V.(%) | 15 | 18 | 19 | 24 | 18 |
1Values in this column followed by the same letter are not significantly different at the 0.05 level. Columns without letters indicate that there were no significant differences between values in that column.
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Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site mulch studies
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