Background : Ginseng sometimes develops physiological disorders as EC of soil accumulates in sun shading facilities with no leaking water. In addition, it is difficult to make moisture content of soil and EC stably suitable for ginseng growth and development in the same sun shading facility. Accordingly, this study examined EC in soil depending on leaking water rate of sun shading facilities and conducted experiments to establish the proper leaking water rate for ginseng depending on rainfall.
Methods and Results : For leakage examination, rainfall flowing into a ridge. As sun shading facilities of ginseng to examine leakage, four kinds such as Blue-Pe-sheet, Pe4 (four–layered polyethylene net) + Pe2 (two–layered polyethylene net), Pe4 , Pe2 were installed. As for leakage, a plastic box (23 × 30 × 30 ㎝) was installed on the ridge of ginseng field and outside, rainfall into the box during precipitation was examined, and the leakage quantity was calculated as the ratio of the quantity into the ginseng field regarding rainfall outside. The leakage quantity was examined a total of six times on July 2, July 3, August 24, August 30, August 31, and September 4. Regarding EC in soil, WT-1000n which is a EC measuring instrument was used, and the average was calculated through 3 repeated examinations. There are little differences in the leakage quantity depending on the sun shading with 0.1% of the Blue-Pe-sheet, 2.3% of Pe4 + Pe2, 4.3% of Pe4, and 30.7% of Pe2. At the leakage rate of 0.1%, EC decreased from 1.52 ds/m on July 3 to 1.04 ds/m on August 8, and increased again to 1.54 ds/m on September 3 At the leakage rate of 2.4%, EC changes were lower than that of the leakage quantity of 0.1%, and similar results depending on periods were found. At the leakage rate of 4.3%, salt concentration was measured at 0.92 ds/m on July 3, decreased since then, increased to 0.90 ds/m on September 3, and overall concentration was less than 1.0 ds/m. At the leakage rate of 30.7%, EC was the lowest at 0.46 ds/m and similar results were found since then.
Conclusion : Differences in leakage quantity depending on sun shading facilities of ginseng affected EC in soil, and EC became lower with more leakage quantity. For the leakage quantity to maintain the EC in soil proper for ginseng growth and development lower than 1.0 ds/m, it was found to be effective to control the leakage quantity at 30% in May - June, and September - October when there are less rainfall, and at 2 - 5% in July - August when there are heavy rainfall.