The cultivation of Sorghum Bicolor using no-till technology and a complex biological substance

Abstract

This research is aimed at studying the influence of no-till technology on the cultivation of Sorghum bicolor using a complex biological substance in comparison with traditional technology. Such parameters as growth and development of plants, yield, the quality of crops based on the quality of previous winter barely crops are considered. The research was carried out in 2016–2018 during a stationary experiment in the steppe of Crimea. The soil of an experimental plot is represented by a mycelial-calcareous black soil. The plough layer contains 4.4 mg of movable phosphates and 39.1 mg of exchangeable potassium per 100 g of soil. The weighted pH average is 7.5. The climate of the steppe agroclimatic region is extremely continental. The annual precipitation is 413 mm. The annual temperature is 10.4 °C. The yield of sorghum cultivated with traditional methods was 1.51 t/ha and 1.44 t/ha in the case of no-till technology (the least significant difference(0.5) is 0.21 t/ha). That means there is no decrease in yield in terms of direct seeding. Despite the lack of tilling in case of direct seeding, the yield is on the same level with both techniques. The use of a complex biological substance increased the yield of sorghum by 0.11 t/ha. The inoculation of seeds in the case of no-till technique helped to positively increase the yield by 0.22 t/ha in comparison with classic technology. In the case of traditional methods, the inoculation of seeds in the biological substance didn’t impact the yield. The mass fraction of ash varied depending on the studied variants from 2.40% to 2.58%, which didn’t provide a positive increase in this parameter. The traditional method, accompanied by the use of a microbial substance, gave a positive increase in the mass fraction of protein by 1.34% in comparison with a control sample and by 1.66% in comparison with direct seeding, accompanied by inoculation. The content of crude fat varied between 3.34% and 4.43%. In the case of no-till + inoculation, this parameter is 0.53% higher than in the case of no-till without inoculation. The traditional seeding with and without inoculation positively decreased the content of crude fat in comparison with direct seeding.