The effect of mineral fertilizer use technology on crop rotation weediness

Abstract

The article provides the results of many years of research conducted in 2005-2010 on leached chernozem in the forest-steppe of Volga region. The subject of the research is species and quantitative changes in weed infestation of crops during crop rotation under the influence of differentiated and averaged doses of fertilizers. It is established that the species composition of weeds depended on the cultivated plant in crop rotation, and their number depended on the predecessor and weather conditions of vegetation. In the Sudanese grass, a late sowing plant, there were late spring weeds (Redroot Pigweed, Barnyard grass) which were practically absent in wheat and barley, the early sowing crops. The influence of fertilizers application on the plant weediness in crop rotation was insignificant. At the same time, in comparison with the control, there was a significant decrease in the number of weeds by 11 -27%. In arid conditions of 2010 the effect of fertilizers on weed infestation was not significant. In favorable moisture years fertilizers had a positive effect not only on the growth and development of cultivated plants, but also stimulated the weeds growth. The quantitative change in weed infestation of crops primarily occurred under the influence of cultivated crops and was less dependent on the technology of fertilizers application. In all experiments with fertilizers, the number of weeds increased by 78-87 % from the first crop in rotation to fallow and decreased after it by 80-87%, more evident in variants with fertilizers. Differentiated application of fertilizers contributed to the reduction of weed weight by 7 % compared with the control and by 11% compared with traditional fertilizer application.

Keywords

• crop rotation
• the average dose of fertilizers
• the differentiated dose of fertilizers
• species composition of weeds
• the number of weeds
• the raw weight of weeds