Yield and yield structure of spring barley (Hodeum vulgare L.) grown in monoculture after different stubble crops

Dorota Gawęda

doi:10.5586/aa.2011.011

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in the period 2006- 2008 in the Uhrusk Experimental Farm belonging to the University of Life Sciences in Lublin. The experimental factor was the type of stubble crop ploughed in each year after harvest of spring barley: white mustard, lacy phacelia, winter rape, and a mixture of narrow-leaf lupin with field pea. In the experiment, successive spring barley crops were grown one after the other (in continuous monoculture). The aim of the experiment was to evaluate the effect of stubble crops used on the size and structure of barley yield. The three-year study showed an increasing trend in grain yield of spring barley grown after the mixture of legumes, lacy phacelia, and white mustard compared to its size in the treatment with no cover crop. Straw yield was significantly higher when barley was grown after the mixture of narrowleaf lupin with field pea than in the other treatments of the experiment. The type of ploughed-in stubble crop did not modify significantly plant height, ear length, and grain weight per ear. Growing the mixture of leguminous plants as a cover crop resulted in a significant increase in the density of ears per unit area in barley by an average of 14.7% relative to the treatment with winter rape. The experiment also showed the beneficial effect of the winter rape cover crop on 1000-grain weight of spring barley compared to that obtained in the treatments with white mustard and the mixture of legumes. All the cover crops caused an increase in the number of grains per ear of barley relative to that found in the control treatment. However, this increase was statistically proven only for the barley crops grown after lacy phacelia and the mixture of legumes.

Highlights

As a result of the high proportion of cereals in the crop structure, they are more and more frequently sown in stands after grain forecrops or grown in monoculture (Kwiatkowski, 2004)
Compared to the control treatment, an increasing trend in grain yield was observed after ploughing in white mustard, lacy phacelia, and the mixture of legumes, with yield increases of 1.3, 4.0 and 7.7%, respectively
The study results show that, on average for the three-year study period, the ploughing-in of the stubble crops did not have a significant effect on yield of spring barley grown in monoculture

Summary

Introduction

As a result of the high proportion of cereals in the crop structure, they are more and more frequently sown in stands after grain forecrops or grown in monoculture (Kwiatkowski , 2004). This contributes, among others, to gradual degradation of soil, since its macro- and micronutrient availability decreases, physical and biological properties deteriorate as well as weed infestation increases and the regrowth of troublesome species occurs (Thorup , 1994). A consequence of this is a frequent decrease in yields of cereals, including spring barley that belongs to plants sensitive to improper crop sequencing. Some studies show that ploughing in post-harvest biomass has a more beneficial effect on yield of spring cereals than mixing the mulch with the soil directly before sowing (Hansen et al 2000)

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