The impact of long-term reduced primary soil tillage on maize (Zea mays L.) productivity

Abstract

A long-term field experiment (since 1988) was carried out at the experimental station of the Aleksandras stulginskis university (Asu, 54º52′ N, 23º49′ e) in the conditions of transitional maritime-climate. Research data from the 2010-2012 experimental period are presented. the soil of the experimental site is silty light loam Endohypogleyic-Eutric Planosol (PLe-gln-w). Average annual temperature is 6.2°c. the aim of the experiment was to establish the influence of reduced primary autumn soil tillage on maize productivity. the treatments of the experiment were: 1) conventionally (22-25 cm) ploughed by a mouldboard plough, 2) shallowly (12-15 cm) ploughed by a mouldboard plough, 3) deeply (25-30 cm) tilled by a chisel cultivator, 4) shallowly (10-12 cm) tilled by a disc harrow, 5) no-till. the experimental results showed that all primary soil tillage methods (except for chiselling) normally had insignificant effect on maize biometric parameters. Deep chiselling had consistent negative influence on the biometric parameters of maize canopy, while no no-till effect was insignificantly positive. maize crop biometric parameters partially depended on weed infestation at the beginning and the end of maize vegetation. in two out of three experimental years, maize crop density at the beginning and end of vegetation did not differ significantly in differently tilled plots. A relationship was found between the number of annual as well as total number of weeds and crop density at the beginning of vegetation (r = −0.926** and −0.948**). crop density at the beginning of vegetation had significant positive effect on most maize productivity parameters. Reduced soil tillage from shallow ploughing to no-till had total positive effect on maize productivity in 2011 only because of the lower weed infestation. Relationships were established between weed infestation and maize crop productivity parameters (correlation coefficients from −0.394 to −0.965**). Productivity parameters were influenced by biometric parameters too (correlation coefficients from 0.713** to 0.920**).

The impact of tillage intensity and meteorological conditions on soil temperature, moisture content and CO2 effluxin maize and spring barley cultivation

“…The soil texture is loam on heavy loam, soil type is Epieutric Endocalcaric Endogleyic Planosol (PL-gln-can-eup) (WRB, 2014); the depth of arable layer is 23-27 cm. The topsoil (0-15 cm) characteristics were as follows: pH KCl 6.6-7.0, available phosphorus (P 2 O 5 ) content 131.1-206.7 mg kg -1 , available potassium (K 2 O) content 72.0-126.9 mg kg -1 , humus content 1.68% (Avižienytė et al, 2013).…”

“…Maize was harvested by a Wintersteiger Delta plot combine (Austria). More detailed information on the methodology of the experiment is available in Avižienytė et al (2013) and Romaneckas et al (2015). Spring barley was sown at a rate of 5-6 million seeds ha -1 at a depth of 3.5 cm with 12.5 cm wide interrow spacings.…”

Impact of sustainable tillage on biophysical properties of Planosol and on faba bean yield

“…Yield variation mainly depended on the differences in crop density (Romaneckas et al 2017). In our previous investigations at the same base of experiment, we did not find any significant yield differences in many other agricultural crops (Romaneckas et al 2006, Romaneckas et al 2009, Avižienytė et al 2013, Romaneckas et al 2019. In contrast to our study, Badagliacca et al (2018) found significant increase in the faba bean grain yield in not tilled plots, by 23% compared with conventional tillage (deep ploughing and harrowing).…”

Influence Of Meteorological Factors On Maize Performance In Latvia

“…In Latvia, the effect of some maize yield-determining factors considered as important by researchers in other countries has not been investigated during the last decades, e.g. plant population density at harvest (Stanton et al, 2007;Baron et al, 2008), effect of seed size on yield (Sulewska et al, 2014), importance of crop rotation (Ðeremeðic et al, 2013) growing maize for silage, and possibility of minimising soil tillage (Aviþienyte et al, 2013). Such investigations are needed also in Latvia, together with detailed research on maize fertilization.…”