TY - JOUR
T1 - Effective killing of volunteer potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tubers by soil frost control using agrometeorological information-An adaptive countermeasure to climate change in a cold region
AU - Yazaki, Tomotsugu
AU - Hirota, Tomoyoshi
AU - Iwata, Yukiyoshi
AU - Inoue, Satoshi
AU - Usuki, Kazuei
AU - Suzuki, Takeshi
AU - Shirahata, Masaki
AU - Iwasaki, Akeo
AU - Kajiyama, Tsutomu
AU - Araki, Kazuya
AU - Takamiya, Yasuhiro
AU - Maezuka, Kenji
N1 - Funding Information:
We are greatly thankful for support received from T. Igarashi, H. Matsuoka, Y. Sakai, Y. Horino, R. Takenaga, S. Matsuno, K. Yasuda, M. Iinuma, M. Idogawa, and Y. Takahata. We also acknowledge valuable advice received from S. Hasegawa, K. Ohno, N.Matsumto, S. Takamatsu, H. Matsunaga, A. Matsubara, H. Hara, A. Sawasaki, T. Kaji, T. Taraba, and I. Yamanaka. Special thanks are extended to K. Shibata, S. Takahashi, S. Nakamura, K. Abe, K. Odajima, T. Hirao, F. Yagasaki, S. Ishida, T. Umetani, and K. Kato for technical support for our study. This study was funded by the Research and Development Project for Application in Promoting New Policy for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (22079) from the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
PY - 2013/12/15
Y1 - 2013/12/15
N2 - In the Tokachi region of Japan, soil frost depth has been decreasing. Outbreaks of volunteer potatoes caused by overwinter survival of unharvested potato tubers have become a severe nuisance. Some farmers have started snow plowing (. yukiwari in Japanese) to deepen soil frost and thereby freeze tubers to death. However, the system relies on farmer's intuition and experience and sometimes they fail to completely kill tubers. To establish a reliable volunteer potato control, we implemented farm testing of the vertical distribution of unharvested tubers and effects of soil frost control on the survival ratio. The control of volunteer potato by attaining adequate soil frost depth using snow plowing and accumulation termed as soil frost control. Furthermore, we compared tuber survival by soil frost control based on estimated soil frost depth by numerical soil temperature model and soil frost control based on farmers' voluntary effort. Most unharvested tubers are distributed at 0-0.15. m depths. The target soil frost depth was set as 0.30. m based on the relation between soil frost depth and tuber killing depth: the depth at which the soil temperature decreases to the critical temperature of -3. °C from a previous study. Soil frost control remarkably decreased survival to less than 0.5% of number of unharvested tubers if soil frost depth exceeded 0.30. m. Consequently, the target soil frost depth was confirmed as appropriate for almost complete tuber elimination. Soil frost control based on the estimated soil frost depth enhanced soil frost penetration more deeply and killed more tubers than soil frost control done by farmers' voluntary effort, thereby suggesting advantages of decision-making based on the estimated soil frost depth. Soil frost control is attracting attention and as a reliable method that can greatly reduce the outbreak of volunteer potatoes. The strategy minimizes climate change related risk.
AB - In the Tokachi region of Japan, soil frost depth has been decreasing. Outbreaks of volunteer potatoes caused by overwinter survival of unharvested potato tubers have become a severe nuisance. Some farmers have started snow plowing (. yukiwari in Japanese) to deepen soil frost and thereby freeze tubers to death. However, the system relies on farmer's intuition and experience and sometimes they fail to completely kill tubers. To establish a reliable volunteer potato control, we implemented farm testing of the vertical distribution of unharvested tubers and effects of soil frost control on the survival ratio. The control of volunteer potato by attaining adequate soil frost depth using snow plowing and accumulation termed as soil frost control. Furthermore, we compared tuber survival by soil frost control based on estimated soil frost depth by numerical soil temperature model and soil frost control based on farmers' voluntary effort. Most unharvested tubers are distributed at 0-0.15. m depths. The target soil frost depth was set as 0.30. m based on the relation between soil frost depth and tuber killing depth: the depth at which the soil temperature decreases to the critical temperature of -3. °C from a previous study. Soil frost control remarkably decreased survival to less than 0.5% of number of unharvested tubers if soil frost depth exceeded 0.30. m. Consequently, the target soil frost depth was confirmed as appropriate for almost complete tuber elimination. Soil frost control based on the estimated soil frost depth enhanced soil frost penetration more deeply and killed more tubers than soil frost control done by farmers' voluntary effort, thereby suggesting advantages of decision-making based on the estimated soil frost depth. Soil frost control is attracting attention and as a reliable method that can greatly reduce the outbreak of volunteer potatoes. The strategy minimizes climate change related risk.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84884278188&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.agrformet.2013.08.005
DO - 10.1016/j.agrformet.2013.08.005
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84884278188
VL - 182-183
SP - 91
EP - 100
JO - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
JF - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
SN - 0168-1923
ER -