Improved soil physical properties and cotton root parameters under sub-soiling enhance yield of Cotton-Wheat cropping system

Abstract

A field experiment has been conducted in Cotton-Wheat cropping system for three cropping cycles, wherein we evaluated a total of five treatments (Control, Sub-soiling at 1.0 m, Sub-soiling at 1.5 m, Cross sub-soiling at 1.0 m and Cross sub-soiling at 1.5 m) in complete randomized block design to find out the effect of sub-soiling on the physical properties of soil and root parameters of cotton in Indian Punjab, where heavy machinery usage in farm operations is causing soil compaction leading to ill effects. Data elucidated that any level of sub-soiling not only improved soil physical properties by reduction in bulk density but also enhanced steady state infiltration rate as compared to control. Data also revealed that root length, fresh root weight plant−1 and dry root weight plant−1 of cotton exhibited significant differences in sub-soiled plots versus control for initial two years of experimentation but trivial differences existed thereafter. Consequently, both cotton and wheat crop resulted in higher yield owing to above mentioned reasons. The field data set is made publicly available to enable critical or extended analysis.