Evaluation of conventional tillage and no tillage for the cultivation of pasture, Megathyrsus maximus.
The aim of this investigation was to evaluate if it is necessary for the soil to be tilled before cultivating pasture, considering that soil tillage comes with many detrimental effects such as destruction of soil structure, exposure of organic carbon, production of greenhouse gases by heavy tractors and increase in the cost cultivating pasture. This investigation was carried out at EARTH University, Limón, Costa Rica for a period of one year from November 2020 to November 2021. The investigation consisted of cultivating Megathyrsus maximus under two soil preparatory techniques, No tillage and Conventional tillage. Our experimental design had 2 treatments and 5 repetitions per treatment giving a total of 10 experimental units. The variables monitored were percentage of germination, botanic composition, biomass, plant height, and the number of tillers for plant parameters and soil organic matter, carbon, nitrogen, soil density, and soil moisture for soil parameters. In general, the result demonstrated that both methods resulted in the same plant morphological traits and soil chemical properties. The botanic composition showed no significant difference (P>0,05) for the percentage of desirable plants between both treatments, the no-tillage treatment had 53,93 % of weed and the conventional tillage treatment 29,14 %. In the case of biomass, there was no significant difference between both treatments throughout the experiment but for day 137 when the quantity of biomass for conventional tillage was significantly higher (284,9 g/m2) than the no tillage (183,6 g/m2). Both numbers of tillers and plant height had no insignificant difference for both treatments. The soil chemical properties did not show any significant difference for organic matter, nitrogen, and carbon. But there was an increase in soil organic matter and carbon when verified before and after plant establishment. Organic carbon increased from 2,17 % to 2,56 % and organic matter from 3,77 % to 4,41 %. Another soil parameter that had a significant difference between treatments was soil moisture with 41,83 % for no tillage and 36,49 % for conventional tillage. The soil apparent density had no significant difference between treatments.
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis biblioteca |
| Language: | eng |
| Published: |
Universidad EARTH
2021-12
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| Subjects: | PASTIZALES, MEGATHYRSUS MAXIMUS, LABRANZA, https://purl.org/pe-repo/ocde/ford#4.01.01, |
| Online Access: | https://repositorio.earth.ac.cr/handle/UEARTH/189 |
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