Effects of green manure planting mode on the quality of Korla fragrant pears (Pyrus sinkiangensis Yu)

Abstract

In this study, a three-year experiment on the fragrant pear orchard was conducted to investigate the effects of different varieties of green manure on the Korla fragrant pear fruit quality, with a view to finding a suitable green manure planting mode for Korla fragrant pear orchard. Green manures were planted in spaces among rows of pear trees, and then smashed and pressed into the soil as fertilisers by the agricultural machinery equipment in their full bloom period. In the experiment, four planting modes of green manure had been set for comparison: SA: Leguminosae green manures alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), SP: Poaceae green manures oats (Avena sativa L.), ST: Cruciferae green manures oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.), and S: orchard authigenic green manures (Chenopodium album L., Mulgedium tataricum (L) DC., and Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud.). Apart from that, eleven fruit quality indicators were analyzed to evaluating the effects of different green manure planting mode on the quality of fragrant pear. According to analysis of variance (ANOVA) results, there were significant differences among four planting modes in terms of nine fruit quality indicators (P<0.05). In addition, the correlation analysis (CA) results revealed that there were different degrees of correlations among quality indicators. On this basis, repeated information among indicators was eliminated by principal component analysis (PCA), thus simplifying and recombining the three principal components. All in all, these three principal components reflect appearance traits, internal nutritive value and taste of fruits, respectively. Specifically, SA significantly improved the internal quality and nutritive value of fruits, SP improved the physical traits of fruits, and ST significantly improved the taste of fruits. Based on the PCA results, a comprehensive evaluation model of fruit quality was constructed. The are comprehensive fruit quality scores:SA>SP>ST>S.