Methods for restoring fertility and improving physical and mechanical properties of soils

Abstract

Insufficient intake of organic matter into the soil, non-compliance with crop rotations result in the soil degradation. Only due to the use of mineral nutrition, it is impossible to maintain a high level of soil fertility. To compensate for the lack of humus, the most optimal is the use of green fertilizers. The costs of producing and applying cover crops are significantly less than the costs of using organic fertilizers. In terms of peasant farms conditions in the Tambov region, two types of crop rotations with the introduction of sideral crops are recommended. It is important to carry out grinding and embedding of sideral crops specifically so that it can provide optimal parameters for the decomposition of organic mass and promote humus formation. Currently, four processing techniques are used for harvesting and embedding sideral crops. The recommended scheme involves mowing and step-by-step grinding of the grass stand with a mower-shredder located in front of the tractor, followed by embedding in the soil with a disc harrow. The analysis shows that small producers segment has no affordable machines for high-quality grinding of sideral crops with low specific energy consumption. To ensure stems cutting with minimal specific energy consumption, a mower has been developed, which, due to the trough-shaped type of its body, forms plants tilted forward in a mass and then, they fall into the grinding zone with the angle of inclination of the stems in this mass close to the angle of body inclination. In the grinding zone, the plant stems are exposed to knives rotating in plane surfaces perpendicular to the longitudinal surface of the mower body. As a result of operational tests of the mower-shredder of sideral crops and crop residues, it was found that technological process of plants grinding is carried out steadily and with a quality that meets agrotechnological requirements.