Effects of Tillage Practices on Top Layer Soil Moisture Content and Soil Porosity in Banana Plantation

2014 ◽  
Vol 955-959 ◽  
pp. 3540-3543
Author(s):  
Ying Dui He ◽  
Xi Ding ◽  
Rui Mei Li ◽  
Yong Xia Liu ◽  
Bi Zun Wang

Soil moisture content and soil porosity were measured in banana plantation under three tillage practices, including deep-tillage (DT), no-tillage (NT), and no-tillage plus straw cover (NTSC). In the experiments, the top layer soil was separated into three depth including 0~15 cm, 15~30 cm and 30 ~ 45 cm. The soil sampling were performed at four plant growth periods, including the stage of banana seedling (SBS), metaphase of banana (MB), the stage of pregnancy (SP) and pumping stage (PS). The results showed that: Among three depth of top layers, soil moisture content in 0~15 cm at four plant growth periods was lower than that in other two depth by three tillage practices. In 0~15 cm top layer soil, all the soil moisture at four plant periods by NTSC practice were highest. And all the soil moisture in soil treated by three tillage practices were increased with the plant growth. The soil porosity in this layer at SBS and MB stages by DT practice was significantly higher than that by NT and NTSC practices. In 15~30 cm layer soil, the soil moisture content and soil porosity at SBS stage was highest in the soil treated by DT practice compared to the that in soil treated by other two tillage practices. In 30~45 cm layer, the soil porosity at SBS stage by DT and NTSC practices were significantly lower than that by NT practice. At MB stage by DT practice it was significantly higher than that by other practices.

2006 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 341-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Célia Regina Grego ◽  
Sidney Rosa Vieira ◽  
Aline Maria Antonio ◽  
Simone Cristina Della Rosa

Experiments in agriculture usually consider the topsoil properties to be uniform in space and, for this reason, often make inadequate use of the results. The objective of this study was to assess the variability for soil moisture content using geostatistical techniques. The experiment was carried out on a Rhodic Ferralsol (typic Haplorthox) in Campinas, SP, Brazil, in an area of 3.42 ha cultivated under the no tillage system, and the sampling was made in a grid of 102 points spaced 10 m x 20 m. Access tubes were inserted down to one meter at each evaluation point in order to measure soil moisture contents (cm³ cm-3) at depths of 30, 60 and 90 cm with a neutron moisture gauge. Samplings were made between the months of August and September of 2003 and in January 2004. The soil moisture content for each sampling date was analyzed using classical statistics in order to appropriately describe the central tendency and dispersion on the data and then using geostatistics to describe the spatial variability. The comparison between the spatial variability for different samplings was made examining scaled semivariograms. Water content was mapped using interpolated values with punctual kriging. The semivariograms showed that, at the 60 cm depth, soil water content had moderate spatial dependence with ranges between 90 and 110 m. However, no spatial dependence was found for 30 and 90 cm depths in 2003. Sampling density was insufficient for an adequate characterization of the spatial variability of soil moisture contents at the 30 and 90 cm depths.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Abdel-Aal M. H.

A field experiment was carried out during the early summer seasons of 2018, at Agricultural Research Centre (ARC) Giza, Egypt. This study aims to examine the effect of three tillage treatments under three different moisture contents on some soil properties and on maize crop production. The experiments included three moisture contents of (MC1, 27.2 %), (MC2, 15.4 %) and (MC3, 7.2 %); as well as three tillage treatments, no-tillage control (NT), minimum tillage (MT) and conventional tillage (CT). The experimental was laid out in split-split plot design with four replications. The results showed that, there was significant effect of tillage at different moisture levels on soil physical and chemical properties. It was also indicated that the effect of tillage practices was significantly on soil bulk density, total porosity, hydraulic conductivity and moisture constants, where the conventional tillage at soil moisture level 15.4% (MC2) helped in improving soil bulk density, hydraulic conductivity and total porosity. Soil organic C, cations exchange capacity CEC, available N, P and K were improved in the soil surface layer of NT and decreased with depth. Clod mean weight diameter of soil was improved with 15.4-% of soil moisture content regardless of tillage depth and enhanced root proliferation by increasing density roots compared with minimum and no tillage in maize plant. The grain yields of maize were improving more under conventional tillage at moisture content 15.4% compared with other treatments. It was found that plant height and roots value increased by using conventional tillage compared with other tillage treatments.


1953 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 326 ◽  
Author(s):  
ES West ◽  
O Perkman

The march of soil moisture content in an experimental citrus grove was determined by successive soil sampling. Following an irrigation the soil moisture content progressively falls owing to withdrawal of water by the plants. It was found that the soil moisture content could be expressed as an exponential function of the accumulated evaporation from a free water surface since the last irrigation. Curves of this type were constructed for the three kinds of cultural treatment studied. The rate of water withdrawal is a function of the soil moisture content.


1984 ◽  
Vol 102 (2) ◽  
pp. 461-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. Finch-Savage

SummaryThe seedling emergence from fluid-drilled germinating and natural onion seeds was compared at five sowing dates between 10 February and 18 May on irrigated and unirrigated plots in two experiments. In the second experiment fluid-drilled seeds selected for uniform germination were also included. There were few significant differences between the emergence of seedlings from germinating and natural seeds in the field sowings of Expt 1. However, a reduction in mean emergence time at the earliest sowing led to an increase in bulb weight while a reduction in the spread of emergence at sowing 3 led to a reduced coefficient of variation of bulb diameter at harvest. Under the less variable conditions on the irrigated plots of Expt 2 germinating seeds reduced mean emergence time and increased percentage emergence compared with natural seed at some sowings. Fluid-drilled selected germinated seeds, however, reduced mean emergence time and increased percentage emergence at every sowing and reduced the spread of emergence at all but the first sowing compared with natural seed.Low soil moisture content made seedling emergence more unpredictable and reduced the benefits gained by sowing germinated seeds. The results presented suggest that techniques to increase the proportion of germinated seeds at the point of sowing and economical methods of applying water during periods of low soil moisture following sowing are needed if the full benefits of fluid drilling are to be realized.


HortScience ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 748B-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan C. Diaz-Perez* ◽  
Darbie Granberry ◽  
Kenneth Seebold ◽  
David Giddings ◽  
Denne Bertrand

Bell pepper (Capsicum annum L.) plants have a high demand for water and nutrients and are sensitive to water stress during the establishment period and fruit setting. High levels of irrigation are often applied in order to maximize yields. However, field observations suggest that excessive irrigations may negatively affect bell pepper plants. The objective was to evaluate the effects of irrigation rate on plant growth and fruit yield. The trial was conducted in Spring 2003 at the Coastal Plain Experiment Station, Tifton, Ga. Drip-irrigated bell pepper (`Stiletto') plants were grown on black plastic mulch in 1-m wide beds (1.8-m centers). Plants were irrigated with an amount of water that ranged from 33% to 167% the rate of evapotranspiration (ET), adjusted by crop stage of development. Soil moisture content (% by volume) over the season was continuously monitored with time domain reflectometry sensors connected to a datalogger. The results showed that the average soil moisture content for the season increased with increasing rates of irrigation. Vegetative top fresh wt. and marketable fruit yield were reduced at both, low (33% ET) and high (166% ET) rates of water application. However, irrigation rate had a stronger effect on fruit yield than on top fresh wt. Plants supplied with high irrigation rates appeared to be more chlorotic compared to plants irrigated at medium rates (100% ET). There was a tendency for higher incidences of soil borne diseases (Pythium sp., Phytophtora capsici) in plants receiving higher rates of irrigation. The conclusion is high irrigation rates (>166% ET) are not recommended since they waste water and may result in both, higher incidences of soil-borne diseases and reduced bell pepper yields.


2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 2111-2142 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. López-Vicente ◽  
A. Navas ◽  
J. Machín

Abstract. The Mediterranean environment is characterized by strong temporal variations in rainfall volume and intensity, soil moisture and vegetation cover along the year. These factors play a key role on soil erosion. The aim of this work is to identify different erosive periods in function of the temporal changes in rainfall and runoff characteristics (erosivity, maximum intensity and number of erosive events), soil properties (soil erodibility in relation to freeze-thaw processes and soil moisture content) and current tillage practices in a set of agricultural fields in a mountainous area of the Central Pyrenees in NE Spain. To this purpose the rainfall and runoff erosivity (R), the soil erodibility (K) and the cover-management (C) factors of the empirical RUSLE soil loss model were used. The R, K and C factors were calculated at monthly scale. The first erosive period extends from July to October and presents the highest values of erosivity (87.8 MJ mm ha−1 h−1), maximum rainfall intensity (22.3 mm h−1) and monthly soil erosion (0.10 Mg ha−1 month−1) with the minimum values of duration of erosive storms, freeze-thaw cycles, soil moisture content and soil erodibility (0.007 Mg h MJ−1 mm−1). This period includes the harvesting and the plowing tillage practices. The second erosive period has a duration of two months, from May to June, and presents the lowest total and monthly soil losses (0.04 Mg ha−1 month−1) that correspond to the maximum protection of the soil by the crop-cover (C factor = 0.05) due to the maximum stage of the growing season and intermediate values of rainfall and runoff erosivity, maximum rainfall intensity and soil erodibility. The third erosive period extends from November to April and has the minimum values of rainfall erosivity (17.5 MJ mm ha−1 h−1) and maximum rainfall intensity (6.0 mm h−1) with the highest number of freeze-thaw cycles, soil moisture content and soil erodibility (0.021 Mg h MJ−1 mm−1) that explain the high value of monthly soil loss (0.09 Mg ha−1 month−1). The interactions between the rainfall erosivity, soil erodibility, and cover-management factors explain the similar predicted soil losses for the first and the third erosive periods in spite of the strong temporal differences in the values of the three RUSLE factors. To optimize agricultural practices and to promote sustainable strategies for the preservation of fragile Mediterranean agrosystems it is necessary to delay plowing till October, especially in dryland agriculture regions. Thus, the protective role of the crop residues will extend until September when the greatest rainfall occurs together with the highest runoff erosivity and soil losses.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 154
Author(s):  
I PUTU DHARMA ◽  
I NYOMAN PUJA

The Effect of Soil Tillages Frequency and Compost Fertilizer on Soil Physical Properties and Corn Yields. The aims of this research is to determine of effect soil tillage frequency and compost fertilizer on soil physical properties and corn yields. The method was used a Randomized Block Design (RBD), factorial consisting of two factors, namely: Soil Tillages Frequency (T) consists of 3 levels, namely: T0 = no tillage; T1 = if one time and T2 = if twice. Compost Fertilizer (K) consists of 3 levels, namely: K0 = Without compost, K1 = 5 tons compost/ha and B2 = 10 tons compost/ha. Combination treatment into 9 treatments, namely T0K0 , T0K1, T0K2, T1K0, T1K1, T1K2, T2K0, T2K1, T2K2. and each treatment was repeated 3 times, so there were 27 research plots.The results showed that the soil tillage frequency and compost fertilizer had no significant effect on the soil physical properties and corn yields. Twice soil tillage frequency resulted bulk density, porosity, soil moisture content and dry corn yields respectively 1.01 g/cm3, 60.98%, 37.31% and 0.83 kg/m2, and not significant different compared with no tillage which is 1.03 g/cm3, 60.43%, 36.57% and 0.81 kg/m2. Addition of 10 tons compost/ha resulted bulk density, porosity, soil moisture content and dry corn yield respectively 0.99 g/cm3, 61.75%, 38.21% and 0.86 kg/m2, and not significant different compared with without compost fertilizer which is 1.06 g/cm3, 59.40%, 36.44% and 0.80 kg/m2.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-58
Author(s):  
Aqeel J. Nassir

An experiment was conducted in fields of Agriculture college, University  of Basrah. The experiment was designed with split-spilt plots in Complete Randomized Blocks Design Treatments included three types of moldboard plows: helical,  semi digger and general –purpose, three soil moisture content levels (10.23,16.47 and 24.68%), and four tractor speed of 0.41, 0.56, 0.86 and 1.21 m sec -1  . The soil  physical properties were determined after plowing soil by using three types of moldboard plow. The results showed that there was significant effect of moldboard plow types, soil moisture content and tractor speed on soil physical properties including bulk density, soil porosity, soil penetration resistance and pulverization ratio. Results also indicated that the effect of interaction among plow types, soil moisture content and tractor speed was significantly on soil penetration resistance and pulverization ratios while it had not significantly effect on bulk density, soil porosity. In general, soil physical properties, had been improved when using high tractor speed and moderate soil moisture content whereas optimal operation was obtained when using general-purpose plow type and  high tractor speed of 1.12 m sec -1 and soil moisture content of 16.47% where this combination gives low bulk density (0.96Mg m-3), high soil porosity (63.90%) high soil pulverization ratio (74%) and low soil penetration resistance (623.47 kN m-2).


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