Lodging in Corn Varies With Tillage and Crop Rotation: A Case Study After Typhoon Bolaven Pummeling Over the Black Soil Zeon in Northeast China

Abstract

Corn lodging can damage corn growth and reduce corn yield, and the degrees of corn yield loss could vary with corn species, soil conditions, agronomic practices as well as the degrees of external forces from strong wind or heavy rain. In August, 2012, Jilin province, China suffered from Typhoon Bolaven and large areas of corn lodged. However, in some no-tillage (NT) fields of this area corn lodging is much less serious than in other fields. We assumed that NT led to less serious lodging. We conducted this study on a long-term tillage trial which was seriously hit by Typhoon Bolaven. The experiment consists of NT, moldboard plow (MP), ridge tillage (RT) with continuous corn (CC), corn-soybean (CS), and corn-corn-soybean (CCS) rotations. The most serious lodging occurred in MP-CC treatment, followed by NT-CCS, NT-CC, NT-CS, MP-CS, and RT-CS. The lower incidence of lodging occurred in CS rotation. Soil bulk density and penetration resistance were not major factors affecting corn lodging except for MP-CC plot where root lodging occurred. The ratio of 2012 to average of 2007-2011 corn yield took the order of MP-CC < NT-CCS < MP-CS ≈ NT-CS < NT-CC < RT-CS ≈ MP-CCS. It suggested that RT has more advantages than NT and MP in preventing yield loss from strong wind and heavy rain. Moreover, adoption of RT combined with CS rotation could be taken into consideration preferentially for lower lodging and higher yield in Black soils in Northeast China.

Effect of conservation tillage on crop yield and soil organic carbon in Northeast China: A meta‐analysis

“…Therefore, RT may be a better conservation tillage practice in the cooler areas of NEC than NT, because RT can maintain a greater soil temperature in spring (He et al, 2010). Moreover, RT could also prevent the yield loss that occurs under CT when strong winds and heavy rain lead to lower crop lodging (Liang et al, 2017). This is particularly important during extreme weather events, such as typhoons.…”

Changes of diazotrophic communities in response to cropping systems in a Mollisol of Northeast China

“…Previous studies have shown that continuous cropping has led to several problems in soils, for example, deficiencies in soil nutrition (Ashworth et al, 2018), decreases in soil enzyme activity (Chavarría et al, 2016), increases in the autotoxicity of root exudates (Huang et al, 2013), increases in pests and diseases (Torres et al, 2018) and imbalances in soil microbial communities (Bennett et al, 2012). Although the problems caused by continuous cropping of corn is less harmful than that of continuous cropping of soybean (Xu, Li & Li, 2004), several studies have revealed that continuous cropping of corn has caused the lodging and surge of pests, which have damaged corn yield (Jirak-Peterson & Esker, 2011;Liang et al, 2017). The cause of the barriers of continuous cropping are very complex, and some biotic and abiotic factors are commonly related to crop-yielding decline.…”