Response of soyabean (<I>Glycine max</I> Mer.) to wheat straw mulching in different cropping seasons

Abstract

The favoured temperature range for soyabean seed germination is 25 -30 8C and the crop is sensitive to water stress. In northern India, the crop is sown in the hot-dry months of May -June. Straw mulching can alter the soil's hydrothermal regime by lowering the temperature and reducing evaporation losses. A field experiment was conducted from 1999 to 2002 at the Research Farm of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana on a loamy sand soil to evaluate the effect of wheat straw mulch on soil temperature, soyabean seed yield and crop growth. Maximum soil temperatures at sowing depth, recorded during the 1-month period after sowing (seed germination to seedling establishment stage), were high under no-mulch, ranging from 30.6 to 48.6 8C, while mulching substantially reduced these temperatures by 1.4 to 12.7 8C. Mulching increased soyabean seed yield by 4.4 to 68.3% in different cropping seasons; it also increased plant biomass by 17 to 122% and nodule mass by 8 to 220%. Leaf area index, chlorophyll content of leaves and number of pods per plant were all increased. Seed yield improvement under mulch was negatively correlated with rainfall distribution (number of rainy days) and amount during the whole cropping season. The percentage increase in seed yield with mulching was regressed against the total number of rainy days and total rainfall in millimetres in the cropping season. Thereby 93% of the variation in response to mulching in different cropping seasons was explained by the distribution and amount of rainfall.

Effect of straw mulching, irrigation and fertilizer nitrogen levels on soil hydrothermal regime, water use and yield of hybrid chilli

“…The soil moisture conserved with mulch was 4.5, 12.7 and 17.9 mm in IW/Pan-E ¼ 0.8, 0.6 and 0.4, respectively. Improvement in soil moisture storage and lowering of soil temperature with straw mulching is in agreement with the findings of Schonbeck and Evanylo (1998), Aulakh and Sur (1999), Agele et al (2000), Ossom et al (2003), and Sekhon et al (2005).…”

“…Our previous studies on soybean also reported greater advantage of soybean to wheat straw mulch under high temperature, low rainfall environments (Sekhon et al 2005). Nijamudeen and Dharamasena (2002) also reported a 32% increase in yield and 28% lower water consumption in chilli due to the application of mulch.…”

Effects of soil deformation and surface mulching on soil physical properties and soybean response related to weather conditions

“…subtropical and semi-arid) with temperature exceeding the optimum for soybean growth, early application of straw mulch to suppress soil temperature can be an advantage (e.g. Sekhon et al, 2005;Lipiec et al, 2013). Therefore, reduction in soil temperature by mulch may have a positive or negative effect on soybean growth, depending on the climate and associated soil temperature during early growth.…”

Effects of straw mulching on maize photosynthetic characteristics and rhizosphere soil micro-ecological environment

“…In the present study, we not only found that chlorophyll content was the highest in M4 and the lowest in M0, but that the differences among M2, M3, M4, M5, and M6 were not significant; this indicates that straw mulching could significantly increase maize chlorophyll content when compared to the treatment without mulching, and the effects of straw mulching would decrease when the straw mulching level increased to a certain level. Sekhon et al (2005) Values are means ± SD (n = 5). Means followed by different letters in the same column indicate a significant difference (P < 0.05).…”