Impact of Tillage Intensity, NPK Fertilization and Weed Control on Seed Yield and Yield Components of Flaxin Newly ReclaimedLands

Abstract

IntroductionFlax (Linum usitatissmum L.) is grown as a dual purpose crop in Egypt, i.e. for production of fibers and oil. The area devoted for flax production gradually decreased during the last decade to reach 7385 faddans in 2014/2015. That decrease in cultivated area is primarily attributed to increase in production costs, especially inputs related to land preparation and manual labor wages for hand weeding and harvesting. However, production costs could be reduced in the newly reclaimed lands by implementation of no-tillage and application of integrated weed managements for weed control.No-tillage (NT or zero tillage) is a component of conservation agriculture (CA) system, in which seeds are placed into untilled soil by opening a narrow slot, trench, or hole of only sufficient width and depth to obtain proper seed placement and coverage (Derpsch et al., 2014). The S AKHA 4 flax (Linum usitatissmum L.) cultivar was grown in 2013/14 and 2014/15 winter seasons to study the effect of two tillage systems (conventional tillage (CT) vs no-tillage (NT)), macronutrients fertilization (NPK, NP and P) and weed control treatments, i.e. Brominal + Select super, Sinal + Select super, hand weeding twice and unweeded check on weeds and flax productivity at Nubaria Research Station, Agricultural Research Center. The experimental design was split split-plot with 4 replications.Total weeds fresh weight was lower significantly in NT than CT by 17.0 and 18.4%, in the two seasons, respectively. Application of NPK gave higher total weeds fresh weight than NP or P by 6.3 and 20.6% and 8.4 and 20.0%, in the two seasons, respectively, while NP superior P by 15.2 and 12.7%, in the two seasons, respectively. Brominal + Select super was more effective in reducing total weeds fresh weight (98.1 and 97.1%) than Sinal + Select super (92.6 and 92.4%) and hand weeding (93 and 90.7%) compared to unweeded check during the two seasons regardless of the tillage system. No-tillage gave comparable seed yield (1363.7 and 1464.2 kg/ha) to conventional tillage (1562.0 and 1530.1 kg/ha) in the two seasons, respectively. NPK fertilization gave higher values for plant height, number of capsules per plant, 1000-seed weight and straw yield. NPK and NP fertilization increased the seed yield by 57.1 and 51.4% and 69.1 and 50.7%, in the two seasons, respectively, compared to P fertilization treatments.All weed control treatments gave significantly higher values for seed yield and yield components compared to unweeded check, with Brominal + Select super giving a slight increase in the values of those characters compared to Sinal + Select super. Percent increase in seed yield, over control was 71, 69 and 68.5% and 68, 67.5 and 68.4%, for the two seasons, respectively. Correlation analysis revealed negative effect of weeds on flax growth and productivity.The present study indicated that no-tillage was equivalent to conventional tillage concerning productivity of seed and straw from dual purpose flax (for oil and fiber), and the necessity of a balanced fertiliza...