Emergence of Silage Maize as Affected by Conservational Tillage, Ridge and Direct Planting Systems

Abstract

In this study, the effects of tillage and planting systems on physical properties of soil and plant characteristics of second crop silage maize (seedling emergence) grown in a Transition Climate Belt of Turkey were investigated. Experiment was conducted on a sandy clay loam soil at Erbaa Karayaka Plain. The tillage systems evaluated were conventional with a mouldboard plough+cultivator+toothed harrow and conservational with chisel and toothed harrow. The three planting systems studied were flat with no-ridging, ridge planting, and direct planting system with no tilling. Soil moisture content, bulk density, penetration resistance, maize mean emergence dates, emerged rate index and percentage of emerged seedlings were measured to assess the effect of different tillage and planting system on emergence of silage maize. Soil moisture content, bulk density and penetration resistance in conventional tillage and ridge planting systems were higher than those of conservational tillage and flat planting systems. The percentage emerged of seedling was slightly higher in ridge planting than flat planting. Conservational tillage system resulted the highest silage maize emergence than conventional tillage system. The ridge planting system reduced the mean emerged date, and increased the percentage emerged of seedling, and produced higher percentage of emerged seedling as compared to flat and direct planting systems.