Sun Keeps the Pests Away: How Soil Solarization Works
Agricultural fields being prepared for solarization.Copyright 2008 Dirk Ingo Franke, Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Speicherkoog_Kartoffelacker_Abflammger%C3%A4t_Envo-Dan.jpg
Students learn how the process of soil solarization is used to pasteurize agricultural fields before planting crops. Soil solarization is a pest control technique in agriculture that uses the sun’s radiation to heat the soil and eliminate unwanted pests that could harm the crops. The approach is compared to other pest control methods such as fumigation and herbicide application, highlighting the respective benefits and drawbacks. In preparation for the associated hands-on activity on soil biosolarization, students learn how changing the variables involved in the solarizing process (such as the tarp material, soil water content and addition of organic matter) impacts the technique’s effectiveness. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post-quiz is provided.
Some engineers are responsible for making sure that food crop production processes are sustainable and produce high-quality food. To do this, they must understand biological concepts such as photosynthesis and nutrient webs, as well as potential plant threats so they can design approaches and technologies to address those threats. Soil solarization is a technology that offers an effective and more sustainable way to protect crops without many of the negative impacts of conventional herbicide and pesticide application methods.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Define “herbicide” and “pesticide” and describe their detrimental side effects.
- Describe the major processes of soil solarization.
- Explain how changing the variables involved in the solarizing process impacts the effectiveness of the technique.