Growth of sugar beet after ploughing longterm reduced tilled soil
2000
Stockfisch, N. | Koch, H.J. (Institut fuer Zuckerruebenforschung, Goettingen (Germany))
Changes in the intensity of soil tillage cause alterations to soil structure and to the distribution of organic matter throughout the soil profile. This may change the nutrient supply and growth conditions of crops. The influence of reduced tillage on the growth of sugar beet has been examined in a field trial near Goettingen since 1992 ("Systemversuch Bodenbearbeitung Harste"). Tillage treatments included mouldboard ploughing (30 cm deep), loosening without soil inversion (30 cm deep) and shallow cultivation (10 cm deep). The experiment was conducted on a luvisol derived from loess. Crop rotation consisted of sugar beet after a catch crop, followed by winter wheat and then winter barley, and each phase of this rotation was grown every year. Averaged over 6 years, long-term reduced tillage decreased white sugar yield as compared to mouldboard ploughing. However, the loosened plots were ploughed before sowing the catch crop in autumn 1998; this increased white sugar yield so that it almost equalled the yield in the long-term ploughed treatment (where the sugar concentration was lower but the root yield was higher). Confirming earlier observations, shallow cultivation continued to produce a smaller white sugar yield than the plough treatment.
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