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In several northeastern USDA Low-Input Sustainable Agriculture (LISA) projects, we compared natural (hay-straw, wood-chips, recycled newspaper pulp) and synthetic (polypropylene films and polyester fabrics) mulch materials with mowed sodgrass, tillage, and residual herbicides, as orchard groundcover management systems (GMS). Treatments were applied in 2m-wide strips under newly planted apple (Malus domestica cvs. Liberty, Empire, Freedom. and others) trees on MARK rootstock, planted at 3 by 5m spacing, in 1990. Edaphic, economic, tree nutritional and fruit yield impacts of these GMS were evaluated for four years in five Hudson Valley orchards. All the mulches cost more to establish and maintain ($450 to 4500/ha) than mowed sod ($150/ha), tillage ($120/ha), or residual herbicide ($50/ha) systems. There were few differences in soil water or nutrient availability, leaf nutrient content, tree growth or fruit yield in the mulch systems compared with herbicide or tillage GMS. Meadow voles (Microtus spp.) caused considerable damage to trees in the synthetic and straw mulches, despite the use of trunk guards. Wood-chips were the most enduring, least expensive, and most effective natural mulch. There were insufficient short-term benefits to offset the greater costs of synthetic mulch fabrics or films, in comparison with conventional herbicide snip systems for orchard floor management.

073 A COMPARISON OF NATURAL AND SYNTHETIC MULCHES WITH CONVENTIONAL ORCHARD-FLOOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS