Long-term effect of soil conservation tillage on soil water content, penetration resistance, crumb ratio and crusted area

Abstract

Conservation tillage harmonizes soil protection with demands of the crop, soil and climate. The continuous conservation tillage improves soil properties and modifies impact of weather extremes. The aim of the paper was to investigate the changes in four soil physical states affected by soil conservation tillage and to evaluate soil water content in a critical period. The study was carried out on Chernozems applying six tillage treatments, that are loosening, ploughing, tine tillage (a deeper, and a shallower), disk tillage and direct drilling. The investigation suggested that soil conservation was the major solution resulting in the balanced water content (SWC) and penetration resistance values in both treatments under peculiar weather conditions. However, the crumb ratio and the crusted area resulted in significant differences between the treatments, presumably due to the level of surface preservation. Soil water content differed significantly between months, with higher contents in spring and lower values in the end of summer. The higher SWC expected at the beginning of the growing season was reliably fulfilled, but the SWC level for workabilty differed from the optimum.