Effect of Chicken Manure Application and Plant De-Leafing on Soil Physical Qualities and Plantain Production.

Soil quality is determined by analyzing certain physical, chemical and biological soil properties. Crop management research in Puerto Rico has focused mainly on soil fertility related qualities ignoring the soil physical and biological characteristics. As agricultural land in Puerto Rico becomes scarce it is of the most importance to maintain the soil quality and productivity of the remaining farmlands. Moreover, many soils in Puerto Rico are located in steep slopes making them very vulnerable to soil erosion; one of the main causes of soil degradation and reduction of soil quality. Traditionally, plantain and banana in Puerto Rico has been grown on highly weathered soils with natural low fertility and high potential to soil erosion, therefore very susceptible to soil degradation. The objective of this research is to study different soil physical characteristics related to soil quality of different soil management practices in the production of plantain. The experiment is being conducted in the Corozal Agricultural Experimental Substation, University of Puerto Rico. The management treatments include:  chicken manure application, on-ground placement of de-leafing sigatoka-infected leaves, chicken manure application + de-leafing, and control. The de-leafing treatments include the placement of leaves between rows of plants. Preliminary observations show evidence of greater soil erosion in control treatment and lowest soil erosion in deleafing treatments. The goal of this research is to provide farmers, extentionist, and policy makers with management strategies to increase soil quality especially in soils highly vulnerable to soil degradation.