IMPACT OF TILLAGE SYSTEMS ON SOIL CHARACTER-ISTICS AND PRODUCTIVITY OF SUNFLOWER UNDER THE CONDITION OF AL-HASA IN SAUDI ARABIA | ||||
| Journal of Soil Sciences and Agricultural Engineering | ||||
| Article 2, Volume 26, Issue 11, November 2001, Page 6623-6635 PDF (631.37 K) | ||||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||||
| DOI: 10.21608/jssae.2001.256787 | ||||
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| Authors | ||||
| H. A. Al-Hashem1; Y. A. Al-Fehaid2; A. M. Al-Ojayan2 | ||||
| 1Dept. of Agric. Eng. Collage of Agric. and Food Sci. King Faisal University, Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia | ||||
| 2Agricultural and Water Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Water, Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia | ||||
| Abstract | ||||
| The present study aimed to compare the influence of four different tillage systems on soil characteristics, root system, vegetative growth and seed yield of sunflower. A field experiment was carried out on a clay soil during two consecutive seasons (1999 and 2000) at the Farm of the Agricultural and Water Research Center, Al-Hasa, Saudi Arabia. The suggested land preparation and tillage systems were disc plowing followed by spike tooth harrowing (DPTH), moldboard plowing followed by spike tooth harrowing (MPTH), disc plowing followed by disc harrowing (DPDH), chisel plowing followed by disc harrowing (CPDH) and no tillage (CONT). The result indicated that there were significant differences between the evaluated systems in soil density at 10 and 20 cm soil depth. DPDH system was superior in producing the lowest values of soil density at both depths and the less soil penetration resistance through the layer of the plowing. All tillage systems increased the initial and basic infiltration rates, compared to the non tillage. Chisel plowing gave the highest initial and basic infiltration rate, while DPDH system gave slightly lower values, compared to chisel plowing but higher than the others. The tillage systems were found to have a significant effect on the root characteristics and plant vegetative growth. Better root length, root distribution area, fresh and dry weight of the root were achieved by DPDH system. There was no significant difference between MPTH and DPTH systems on the root system, except root fresh weight. However, there was a significant difference between DPTH treatment and the others on the root characteristics, except root length. Also, DPDH system resulted in the highest values of the vegetative growth, providing an increase of 28%, 55%, 51% and 70% in plant height, number of leaves per plant, plant fresh weight and average leaf area per plant, respectively compared with the CONT. No significant differences were existed neither between MPTH and DPTH nor between DPTH and CPDH on the four vegetative parameters. Seed yield and its components of sunflower exposed a significant effect between the various tillage systems. The greatest effect was observed by DPDH system which produced the best seed disc components, giving an increase of 31% in the seed disc diameter and an 36% in the seed yield. It is possibly to suggest that using the system of disc plowing followed by disc harrowing could be the useful land preparation for enhancing the yield of sunflower under the condition of the area of study. | ||||
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