Long-Term Tillage and Crop Sequence Effects on Winter Wheat and Triticale Grain Yield under Eastern Romanian Danube Plain Climate Conditions

Abstract

Many researches around the world have compared the performance of winter wheat (WW) and triticale (T) grown under conventional and no tillage systems; however, relatively few long-term experiments have been conducted under Eastern Romanian Danube Plain area. An experiment was established in 2012 in Fundulea on a cambic chernozem with two tillage treatments [no-tillage (NT) and chisel tillage (CT)] and two crop sequences [soybean (S) -WW/T and maize (M) – WW/T)]. WW and T yields were generally at similar levels with both tillage systems in most years between 2012 and 2017. Yields increased with higher amounts of rainfall during the vegetation period (from October until June) with the smallest increase among tillage treatments in NT. This indicates that CT can be superior to NT regarding yield at superior amounts of rainfall. Preceding crops did not considerably influence WW and T yields.