Sanitary state and yielding of spring barley as dependent on soil tillage method

The effects of traditional tillage cultivation (control treatment), no tillage (instead of tillage the soil was loosened with scruff), and direct sowing (with a special drill into unploughed soil) on the health of spring barley cultivar. Klimek were compared in three-field crop rotation (field bean, winter wheat, spring barley) in an experiment performed in the years 1997-1999 on the soil of a good wheat complex. The results of phytopathological observations carried out over the vegetation season are presented in the form of an injury index. The following diseases were recorded on spring barley: net blotch (Drechslera teres) - net type and spot type, powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis), leaf blotch (Rhynchosporium secalis), eyespot (Tapesia yallundae) and foot rot (fungal complex). Tillage system had no a significant influence on the occurrence of both types of net blotch. The intensity of powdery mildew and leaf blotch was the highest in the case of traditional tillage cultivation, and the lowest - in that of no tillage. Direct sowing was conductive to the development of eyespot, and no tillage - to foot rot. Fungi of the genus Fusarium, mainly F. culmorum, and the species Bipolaris sorokiniana, were isolated most frequently from infested stem bases. The weather conditions differed during spring barley grown in the three years analyzed. Mean air temperature in 1997 and 1998 was similar to the many-year average for the city of Olsztyn and its surroundings (13.8°C). In the vegetation season 1999 mean air temperature reached 14.6°C, and was considerably higher than the many-year average. Taking into account total precipitation and distribution in the three-year experimental cycle, 1997 and 1998 can be considered average, and 1999 - wet.The weather conditions had a significant effect on the intensity of all diseases observed on spring barley. The highest yield grain was obtained in the case of traditional tillage cultivation (on average 3.06 t·ha-1 for the three years analyzed), and the lowest - in that of direct sowing (2.18 t·ha-1). No tillage occupied a middle position (2.55 t·ha-1).