engleski

Tillage and soil amendments effect on soil physical properties and yield of oats (Avena sativa L.) in organic farm in Mediterranean Croatia

Organic agriculture represents sustainable and environmentally friendly soil management. Nevertheless, this kind of management requests high level of knowledge due to limitations in use of agrochemicals. Proper agro-technical measures are especially important on organic farms on degraded saline-sodic soils in Mediterranean. In this paper, we study the impact of two tillage managements (disc-harrow – DH and disc-harrow with ripping – DH+RIP) and three selected treatments on soil physical properties in saline-sodic soils of River Raša valley, Croatia. Treatments were: control, G6+OM (6 t ha-1 gypsum + 40 t ha-1 farmyard manure) and G6S2 (6 t ha-1 gypsum + 2 t ha-1 sulphur). Results show that DH+RIP treatment recorded lower bulk density, penetration resistance and higher air filled porosity compared to DH treatment. Soil amendments also show implications on soil physical properties. Lowest compaction was noted at G6+OM, while control treatment recorded the highest. Yields of oat were generally low due weed infestation. DH+RIP treatments showed 15% higher yields compared to DH treatments. Amendments also recorded different response on oat yield. G6+OM treatment recorded 34% higher yields of oats compared to control, while G6S2 treatment recorded 82% of grain yields compared to control. This can be justified by the period between sulphur application into this treatment and sowing date, which was too short. Research should be continued with expanded monitoring of soil hydraulic properties, carbon dynamics, soil structure and aggregate stability in order to find most appropriate and sustainable soil management on saline-sodic soils under organic production in Mediterranean.

saline soils ; sodic soils ; Istria ; bulk density ; penetration resistance ; oat yield

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