Productivity of sugar beet and barley in short crop rotations as affected by fertilization and tillage

Abstract

Purpose. To find out the dependence of sugar beet and barley productivity in short crop rotations on organo-mineral fertilizer system and soil tillage with the use of manure and harvest residues (straw of cereals and sugar beet tops).Methods. Field, laboratory, and statistical.Results. The study was carried out in the area of insufficient soil moisture of the Left Bank Forest-Steppe of Ukraine on the slightly saline chernozem in a long-term stationary experiment in the following short crop rotations: crop rotation system esparcet + Festuca pratensis and grain-hoed crop rotation in the link with bare fallow with the 25 % share of sugar beet. Fertilization for the experiment was organo-mineral, both in crop rotation and under sugar beet. Barley was grown after sugar beet against the background of the aftereffect of fertilizers applied to sugar beet. The ploughing of harvest residues of all the crops of the rotation into the soil against the background of mineral fertilization was not inferior to the use of manure and mineral fertilization system by the effect on the sugar beet and barley yields.Conclusions. Under the application of 25 t/ha of manure + N90P90K90, in the crop rotatory system, root yield and sugar yields were 37.6 and 6.56 t/ha, respectively. To compare, in grain-hoed crop rotation, these values were 38.3 and 6.62 t/ha, respectively. When ploughing the crop residues of all crops in the rotation into the soil + N90P90K90, root yield in both crop rotation systems was at the level of the treatment 25 t/ha of manure + N90P90K90. Sugar beet productivity under the combined tillage in the grain-hoed crop rotation and all fertilization systems was not inferior to ploughing. Under the application of 25 t/ha of manure + straw in both crop rotation systems, root yield was 36.4 and 34.2 t/ha, respectively, and sugar yield was 6.13 and 5.81 t/ha, respectively. Barley yield in both crop rotation systems under the aftereffect of fertilizers applied to sugar beet + straw + N90P90K90 had advantages in the link with bare fallow compared to the link esparcet + Festuca pratensis. Barley yield under the combined soil tillage was not inferior to ploughing.