Exploring Crop Management Impacts to Soil Health in Maine Potato Production

Dissertation outlining the project in its entirety. Chapter four addresses the project related to this report. Enhanced soil health can provide protection for plants from diseases, enhance nutritional fertility, prevent erosion through improved physical structure, and consequently result in higher crop yields. To better understand the impacts of different management strategies on soil health, potato cropping system treatments incorporating varying rotation lengths, rotation crops, green manures, compost amendments, and a soil fumigant were evaluated over four years from 2019 to 2022 with two potato varieties, ‘Caribou Russet’ and ‘Russet Burbank’. Management impacts were analyzed using various soil health and production parameters, including soil properties, nematode populations, soilborne disease incidence, and potato yield data. Management practices also impacted various soil properties, including compost amendments, which increased organic matter, soil respiration, soil organic carbon, zinc levels, and many microbial groups detected via phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) assays. While long-term effects were not explored in this study, these results may aid farmers in developing crop management plans to improve soil health, reduce disease, and increase yields.