Effects of banana and sweet potato intercropped on soil physical and chemical properties

Abstract

In order to study the effect of intercropped sweet potato in banana orchard on soil physical and chemical properties, the soil nutrients, temperature, humidity and enzyme activities of sweet potato intercropped and banana monocultured were compared by using Guijiao-1 and Pushu-32 as research materials. The soil temperature of sweet potato intercropped in the 5-20cm soil layer was 0.46-4.55℃ lower than that of banana monocultures in the hot summer, but in the 10 cm and 20 cm soil layers higher with 0.37-0.97℃ than that of monocultured in October and November. The water content in 5-20cm soil layer of sweet potato intercropped was 1.42-14.55% higher than that of banana monocultured. From May to September, the activities of soil sucrase, phosphatase, catalase and urease in sweet potato intercropped were significantly higher than those in banana monocultured. The contents of soil organic matter, total nitrogen, total potassium, available nitrogen, soil available phosphorus and potassium were 10.64-37.11%, 16.35-32.04%, 4.15-9.55%, 25.39-32.15%, 3.56-8.29%, 31.16-171.04% higher than those in banana monoculture. Thus, there had positively effects on improving the soil physical and chemical properties and the activity of important metabolic enzyme in banana field by sweet potato intercropped.