The effect of soil conservation tillage on soil moisture dynamics under single cropping and crop rotation

Abstract

During 1993-1995 the effect of conventional tillage, reduced till, mulch till and no-till technology on soil moisture dynamics has been studied in field experiment on Haplic chernozems near Piešťany. The tillage treatments were evaluated under a single cropping of maize and spring barley - common peas - winter wheat crop rotation. Soil samples for gravimetric determination of moisture content were collected from six layers up to 0.8 m, three times per year (April-July). The soil moisture was highly significantly influenced in order of importance by date of sampling, year, growing crops, tillage treatments, soil layer and by interactions year × crops, year × date of sampling, crops × date of sampling, tillage × date of sampling, year × tillage, date of sampling × layer and significant influences by interactions, tillage × crops. The soil under conventional tillage had significantly higher moisture content than tested reduced till, mulch till and no-till treatments. The significant influence of maize stand on better soil humidity condition (16.35%) in comparison to crops grown in a crop rotation (in average 14.10%) has been ascertained.

Keywords

• tillage
• soil moisture dynamics
• crop rotation
• maize
• spring barley
• common peas
• winter wheat