Water permeability and accumulation of moisture in the soil during its cultivation using the No-till technology

Abstract

Relevance. Cultivation of crops using No-till technology in the Stavropol Territory and other regions of our country is becoming more widespread. However, the expansion of this technology is hampered by fears that without tillage Russian soils, mostly heavy in mechanical composition, can overcompact, which will lead to a deterioration in their physical properties and, as a result, a decrease in the yield of cultivated crops.Methods. In 2013–2020 on the experimental field of the North Caucasian Federal Scientific Agrarian Canter, located in the zone of unstable moistening of the Stavropol Territory, on ordinary chernozem studies were carried out, the purpose of which was to establish the effect of long-term use of the No-till technology on the water permeability and accumulation of moisture in ordinary heavy loamy chernozem of the zone of unstable moistening of the Stavropol Territory. In the experiment, a four-field crop rotation was studied: peas — winter wheat — sunflower — corn. In one case, all crop rotation crops were cultivated according to the technology recommended by the scientific institutions of the Stavropol Territory with tillage, in the other case, according to the No-till technology, in which the soil was not cultivated for two crop rotations (8 years).Results. During two rotations of crop rotation in the No-till technology, the water resistance of soil aggregates increases and, on average, over the years of the experiments, 30.4 pcs./m2 of earthworms lived in it, which is 4.0 times more than in the soil cultivated according to the recommended technology. The water permeability of ordinary chernozem in No-till technology after eight years of research (in autumn 2020) was 7.18, and in cultivated soil —5.17 mm per minute, which is 38.9% lower. These indicators ensured the accumulation and preservation of 133 mm of productive moisture in a one and a half meter soil layer by the time of flowering of spring crops and earing of winter wheat using the No-till technology, according to the recommended technology — 101 mm.