Prospects for the ExpressSun™ production system for sunflower cultivation in the European part of Russia

Abstract

The results of studies of five sunflower cultivation variants within the production system ExpressSun™ on ordinary chernozem for 2013-2019 in the southeastern European part of Russia (the hydrothermal index for the growing season – hereinafter HTI – is 0.70) are presented. It was found that when switching to the systemic principle of formation, cultivation technologies based on differentiated soil tillage in crop rotation provided an increase in soil productive moisture reserve to the emergence of sunflower seedlings, in comparison with the traditional technology by 5.8-12.2 mm (3.8-8.0%), P2O5 content - by 2.0-27.2 mg/kg (1.0-8.9%). The highest sunflower oilseed productivity 2.52-2.56 t/ha was revealed when using complex fertilizers, which was 0.25-0.43 t/ha (11.0-20.2%) more than other options. Despite the very high content of K2O in the soil, the yield was in direct proportion to this macroelement (r = 0.32-0.85*). The highest conditional net income 27070.2 rubles/ha was established against an intensive background of resourse-saving technology, which was 970.0-3780.5 rubles/ha (3.7-16.2%) more than other studied options. Based on the data obtained, a low-cost technology of sunflower cultivation has been developed, which includes the following technological operations: applying complex mineral fertilizers (NPK)15, deep soil tillage by 25-27 cm, spring harrowing, pre-sowing cultivation, packing, sowing, harrowing in one track, herbicide treatment, and top-dressing. The expected annual economic effect from the development of new technologies for sunflower cultivation is more than 1100 rubles/ha.