Soil Organic Carbon and Total Nitrogen in Temperate Apple Orchards of South Kashmir

Soil organic carbon and nitrogen play animportant role in soil sustainability and crop production. The C/N ratio is used as a sensitive soil quality indicator and as a guide for rate of mineralization; hence critical for the ecosystem response to elevated atmospheric CO2. We studied SOC, total soil nitrogen (TSN) and C/N ratio of young apple orchard of district Kulgam. The SOC and TSN content ranged from 7.9and 0.75 g kg-1 in Kounserbal to 21.8 and 1.16 g kg-1 in Yaripora respectively. The C/N ratio ranged from 18.7 to Yaripora and 10.2 in Okey with a productivity of 12.1 and 9.1 Mg ha-1 respectively. We conclude that more efforts should be made to increase and maintain C/N ratio for effective soil CN balance and optimum C/N needs to be evaluated across conventional, high density planting and organic farming for achieving potential productivity of apple orchards under temperate conditions of Kashmir.