Effects of different cultivation techniques on soil temperature, moisture and potato yield

In order to explore effects of plastic film mulching and green manuring on improving soil temperature and moisture in southwest cool mountain areas in China, an experiment was conducted in 2009-2010. Effects of four kinds of plastic film mulching and green manuring treatment combinations on soil temperature, soil water content and yield were studied. Results showed that compared with the conventional tillage technique treatment (CK), green manuring +plastic mulching mode (GMPM) and simply plastic mulching model(PM) increased soil temperature（0-20cm layer）by 3.6℃ and 2.9℃ per day respectively. GMPM, green manuring(GM) and plastic mulching model(PM) increased soil water content by 12.93%, 6.3% and 10.88% respectively (0-21cm layer) from the sown day to the middle of strong growth period, GMPM and PM decreased the soil water content by 6.35% and 6.4% respectively after the middle of strong growth period when compared with CK. Meanwhile, the tuber yield of GMPM and PM increased by 25.6% and 2.3% respectively. Therefore GMPM can dramatically increase soil temperature and moisture of seedling stage , also increase tuber yield.