Elements of fertility and productivity of arable land depending on the soil tillage system

Abstract

The effect of basic tillage systems on fertility elements and arable land productivity in the cultivation of crops was studied. Research took place in 2017–2019 in a stationary experiment on the dark grey forest loamy soil of the Northern Trans-Urals. The observations were carried out during the seventh rotation of the grain-fallow crop rotation, namely bare fallow – winter rye – spring wheat – spring wheat – spring barley, spread in time and space. Moldboard, non-moldboard, combined, differentiated, minimum combined, stubble-mulch and surface soil tillage systems were studied. Various basic tillage systems did not affect significantly the agrophysical properties of soil during the research period with favorable precipitation conditions. At a very low N–NO 3 content, tillage did not have a large effect on the availability of the arable layer. Favorable conditions for phosphorus nutrition in the soil layer of 0–20 cm were formed by combined and surface soil tillage systems. The Р 2 О 5 content with these systems was higher than with moldboard tillage, in the spring by 20.6–24.4%, in the autumn by 6.6–14.3%. Non-moldboard and stubblemulch tillage systems reduced the content of Р 2 О 5 compared to the moldboard by 19.0–23.3%. The most stable positive results for grain yield from 1 ha of crop rotation area without fertilizers were obtained with moldboard (1.88 t/ha) and combined (1.84 t/ha) tillage systems. The yield of grain with the use of resource-saving tillage systems and with fertilizers was almost equal to moldboard system. The difference in productivity generally did not exceed 5%. Moreover, grain yield was 0.03–0.17 t/ ha higher when applying minimum combined tillage alternated with plowing and disk plowing, or when using stubble-mulch tillage than with moldboard system.