Change in the structural aggregate state of the soil in the space rowings of the apple garden under the sod humus content system

The aim of the work was to substantiate scientifically the use of legume-cereal mixtures when sodding of the row spacings of the apple garden and to study the effect of these mixtures on the structural aggregate state of the soil. The experiment was conducted in the apple garden planted in 1989. In the experiment we used a seedling rootstock and a variety Sinap Orlovskij. The layout of trees was 7x5 m. The sowing in the row spacings of the garden was carried out in spring in 2015. The experiment was repeated three times, the area of the registration plot was 280 m2. The research conducted for three years allowed us to establish the role of legume and cereal vegetation in the row spacing of the apple garden in changing of the structural and aggregate state of the soil. Taking into account the structural state of the soil revealed a positive effect of the grass mixtures in the row spacing using this indicator. The number of agronomically valuable aggregates in all variants of the experiment has increased. The most noticeable increase was observed in the upper layer of the soil, their number increased by 9.1-11.3%. The increase in the content of agronomically valuable aggregates was due to the decrease in the number of large (more than 10 mm) and small (less than 0.25 mm) fractions. The content of the large fraction in the 0-20 cm soil layer decreased to 27.5-31.0% depending on the variant, and in the 20-40 cm layer to 35.6-38.6%. The botanical composition of legume and cereal vegetation also affected the soil structure. The largest number of agronomically valuable aggregates in the 0-20 cm soil layer was in the variant with seeding of meadow fescue and alfalfa variable and accounted for 68.4%. We also observed the largest number of agronomically valuable aggregates in the variants with seeding of the meadow timothy grass and alfalfa variable which accounted for 67.9% and the same with meadow timothy grass and meadow fescue which accounted for 67.7%. The minimum content of agronomically valuable aggregates was noted in the variant with seeding of meadow timothy grass and red clover - 64.9%.