Sustainability of winter wheat production on sandy-loamy Cambisol in the Czech Republic: Results from a long-term fertilizer and crop rotation experiment

Abstract

Although Cambisols are the predominant soil type in Central Europe, especially in less favoured mountain areas, the long-term sustainability of winter wheat production on such soils has not been examined. In this paper, the yield of winter wheat over 50 years of farmyard manure, N, P and K fertilizer application (12 treatments altogether) was analysed in the Lukavec Crop Rotation Experiment (LCRE), which was established in 1955 in a potato-growing area (mean annual precipitation and temperature 686 mm and 6.8 °C, respectively). In the unfertilized control, low plant available P, K and Mg concentrations were recorded after 50 years. The annual yield growth (AYG) of grain was negative in the control as well as in low N treatments and positive in the 46 kg N ha −1 treatment. The mean AYG ranged from 7.1 to 72.8 kg ha −1 following the application of 46 to 121 kg N ha −1, respectively. In the first decade of the experiment, the increase in grain yield per 1 kg of applied N was 7.3 kg ha −1 while in the last decade it was 27.1 kg ha −1. The mean grain yield of long-straw and short-straw varieties was 3.9 and 4.7 t ha −1, respectively. In the control, the grain yields were 4.3, 3.2 and 2.4 t ha −1 after root crops, legumes and cereals, respectively. To summarize the 50 years’ results of winter wheat production in the LCRE, grain yield was the most affected by mineral fertilizers, followed by the effect of variety, the preceding crop and farmyard manure application. The long-term sustainability of winter wheat production on low productive sandy-loamy Cambisols can be achieved only by adequate application of N, P and K fertilizers. High year-to-year variation in grain yield stresses the necessity of long-term studies in crop research, which are able to separate real trends from inter-annual fluctuations.