Zonal Tillage as Innovative Element of the Technology of Growing Winter Wheat: A Field Experiment under Low Rainfall Conditions

Abstract

Zonal tillage, including strip-till, can have a positive effect on soil properties, seed germination, plant emergence, growth, and yield of crops. The aim of this two-factor field experiment was to compare different technologies of basic soil tillage, fertilisation, and sowing of winter wheat carried out after two post-harvest agrotechnical practises in a region with low rainfall. The three treatments of the first factor were: conventional technology (CT)—plough tillage, pre-sowing fertilisation, seedbed preparation and sowing; reduced technology (RT)—plough tillage replaced with deep loosening and (ST)—one pass strip-till technology using a hybrid machine. Agrotechnical practises carried out after the harvest of the previous crop were the second factor treatments, i.e., crushed straw and shallow tillage (TS), mulch from crushed straw (MS). The measurement of the treatment effects included changes in soil moisture, plant emergence, yield components and their correlation, grain yield, and the dependence of the yield components on soil moisture. Wheat growing in ST technology resulted in a higher soil moisture than in RT and CT. Only immediately after winter was the soil moisture similar. Grain yield in ST was similar as in CT and significantly, up to 10.4%, higher than in RT. The higher ST grain yield resulted from uniform plant emergence, greater ear density, and grain weight per ear. The correlation between yield components was weaker in ST than in CT and RT. The positive dependence of the size of the crop components on soil moisture was also weaker. The agrotechnical practises performed right after the previous crop harvest affected neither the soil moisture during the growing season of winter wheat, nor the grain yield and its components.