ÖMKi’s researchers visited the Institutes for Agricultural Research and Educational Farms of the University of Debrecen, the Research Institute of Újfehértó on the 14th of February, 2025, to to share their results related to inter-row greening of vineyards and orchards. Altogether, around 20 attendees listened to the presentations and took part in the round-table discussion.
At the beginning of the workshop, Ferenc Tóth, the leader of the Horticultural Group talked about the importance of the Living Lab approach and the emphasis that ÖMKi puts on planning and carrying out practice-based investigations in cooperation with farmers.
Tamás Miglécz, research project leader of ÖMKi talked about the results of orchard inter-row studies. During the investigation, establishment of three cover crop mixtures were monitored in three extensive orchards in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg county, Hungary. The overall take home message of the talk was, that in extensively managed orchards, where a relatively stable vegetation is already established, sowing of different mixtures may not be necessary. Although, since such spontaneously emerged vegetation often lacks sufficient amount of nectar and pollen sources, it is still may be necessary to take further, less intensive measures to enhance both plant and arthropod diversity. From the first to third year, the previously dominant (usually grass) species often recolonized the inter-rows after sowing. Despite this, there were some sown species that could be found frequently in the inter-rows: the establishment of Achillea millefolium, Centaurea jacea, Cichorium intybus, Daucus carota, Echium vulgare, Lotus corniculatus and Medicago lupulina can be considered sufficient at the sites.
László Mezőfi, research project leader of ÖMKi talked about the importance of insect diversity and the latest results of the investigations carried out by the researchers of ÖMKi about ecosystem services in orchards. He showed the effect of sowing multi-species cover crop mixtures on the abundance of beneficial arthropods (such as wild bees, hoverflies, spiders and ladybirds). An important result of his was, that the mixtures containing flowering species attracted more beneficial arthropods, even though the establishment of the grass-based mixture was found to be the best. He also emphasized that according to our measurements, sowing the alleys with multi-species mixtures mean no plant protection risk and has no significant effect on yield quantity and quality.
Nagy Csaba, research assistant of the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences held his presentation about ant-aphid interactions and alternative methods to control aphids on fruit trees. Putting sugar solution containing dishes in the proximity of fruit trees has been shown to be an effective method to prevent aphid-guarding behavior of ants which caused more effective biological control of the aphid population on the tree canopy.
Selmeczi Dóra, researcher of ÖMKi, held her presentation about soil life, and the importance of inter-row greening in preserving it. She introduced the theoretical basics of covering the inter-rows and the main techniques with which we can implement it. She introduced the main organisms of the soil biota and their role in maintaining the ecosystem services that are important in maintaining agricultural production.
After the session, a round table discussion took place. The farmers had the opportunity to share their experiences and thoughts about inter-row greening and could suggest new topics and methods that should be investigated in our future studies.
