Mitigation of subsoil recompaction by light traffic and on-land ploughing: I. Soil response

Abstract

Mechanically loosened subsoil has been shown to be prone to recompaction. We addressed a sandy loam that had been mechanically loosened by a subsoiler to a depth of 35 cm in 1997 and again in 1998. Perennial grass/clover was grown with limited traffic intensity in 1999 and 2000. A recompaction experiment was conducted in 2001 and 2002 when the soil was grown with oat and winter wheat, respectively. Using the formerly loosened plots, on-land ploughing was compared with traditional mouldboard ploughing with the tractor wheels in the furrow. In addition, the loosened plots were either light-trafficked (<6 Mg axle load and <100 kPa inflation pressure) or heavy-trafficked (10–18 Mg axle load and ∼200 kPa inflation pressure), respectively. Finally, the soil loosened by non-inversion deep tillage was referenced with a conventional ploughing–harrowing tillage system that never received the subsoil treatment. The conventional treatment was also grown with the grass/clover in 1999 and 2000. On-land ploughing and light traffic was applied in 2001 and 2002 instead of traditional ploughing and traffic for the conventional treatment. Penetration resistance and bulk density was recorded in the field. Undisturbed soil cores were taken in 1998, 1999 and 2002 from the 7–14, 18–27 and 25–30 cm layer and used for measuring total porosity, pores >30 μm and air permeability at −100 hPa matric potential. The results showed that on-land ploughing mitigated recompaction of the upper part of the formerly loosened subsoil. In contrast, only small differences in recompaction between heavy and light traffic were observed. The mitigation of subsoil recompaction was needed for the loosened soil to provide an upper subsoil with similar—not better—pore characteristics than the non-loosened soil in the conventional treatment. The structural conditions in the plough pan improved for the conventional treatment from 1998 to 2002 as indicated by an almost doubling in air permeability. This was interpreted as being related to the growing of grass/clover ley in 1999 and 2000 combined with a shift from traditional tillage and traffic to on-land ploughing and light traffic when growing cereals in 2001 and 2002. Results on root growth and crop yield are reported in an adjoining paper.