Influence of five tillage patterns on faba bean productivity parameters

Abstract

A long-term stationary field experiment (since 1988) was carried out at the Experimental Station of the Aleksandras Stulginskis University (ASU, 54º52′ N, 23º49′ E). The soil of the experiment is silty light loam Endohypogleyic-Eutric Planosol (PLe-gln-w). Since 1988, wheat, barley, rape, beet, and maize crops were investigated in the conditions of five different tillage patterns: 1) conventional (22–25 cm) ploughing by a mouldboard plough, 2) shallow (12– 15 cm) ploughing by a mouldboard plough, 3) deep (25–30 cm) tillage by a chisel cultivator, 4) shallow (10–12 cm) tillage by a disc harrow, 5) no-till. Results of investigations showed that in long-term conditions of reduced tillage, the productivity of main crops in Lithuania was similar and mainly insignificant. Since 2015, the EU Greening program requested increasing the area of leguminous crops. Lithuanian conditions are the most favorable for pea and faba bean cultivation. Therefore, the area of these crops increased several times. Unfortunately, there is no precise scientific background of faba bean growing technologies in Lithuania. The aim of the experiment was to investigate the influence of five reduced tillage patterns on the parameters of faba bean productivity. The results of the experiment showed that the reduction of primary tillage from annual deep ploughing to no-till had no any significant effect on the parameters of faba bean productivity. The key parameter, which initiated some variation between factors and indexes, was the density of crop.