Enhancement of subsoiling effect on soil strength by conservation tillage

Busscher, W.J. and Sojka, R.E. (1987) Enhancement of subsoiling effect on soil strength by conservation tillage. Transaction of the ASAE. 30(4):888-892.

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Abstract

The effects of deep tillage are believed to differ for
conventional vs. conservation tillage in the sandy
Ultisols of the southeastern Coastal Plains of the United
States. To test this, cone indices were measured for a
conventional tillage and a conservation tillage treatment
before and after in-row subsoil-planting. In the first year
of the study, the conservation tillage treatment had a
significantly higher moisture content (15.1 vs 12.1% on a
dry weight basis) and a mean soil strength that was 0.70
MPa less than the conventional treatment. In the second
year, the conservation tillage treatment had a lower
moisture content (13.2 vs. 14.9%) and a mean soil
strength that was 0.29 MPa greater than the
conventional treatment. However, after conventional
treatment strengths were corrected for soil moisture
content differences, the mean strengths were about the
same. The differences in the distribution of the strengths
favored the conservation tillage treatment which was
evenly distributed while the conventional tillage
treatment had areas of higher strength that could more
easily inhibit root growth.

Item Type:	Article
NWISRL Publication Number:	0634
Subjects:	Soil > Tillage Soil > Subsoiling Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User:	Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2010 21:53
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2017 21:42
Item ID:	490
URI:	https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/490