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Effect of Tillage, Mulching, and N Fertilization on the Growth and Water Use of Upland Rice (Oryza sativa L.)-corn (Zea mays L.) Cropping Pattern on an lnceptisol in Central Java, Indonesia
Dissertation Abstract:
Field experiments were conducted to study the effect of plowing depth, mulching, and nitrogen (N) fertilizer application on some soil physical properties ofloamy fine isohyperthermic matahalloysitic family of Fragic Ustropepts, and on the growth and water use of rice (IR-36) corn (Hybrid C1) cropping system.
This was conducted at the Agriculture Training, Research, and Development Statio n, Univers itas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, from 25 October 1988 to 21 July 1989. Daily soil moisture content of the root zone and water use of rice and corn were estimated using the mod ifi ed Crop Yield Water Use Simulation Model (Poesposutardjo 1984) with mulch factor for soiI evaporation and correction factor for the potential crop transpiration owing to the difference in leaf area index from the normal crops.
Plowing at 20 or 30 cm depth before planting reduced bulk density and soil resistance. Bulk density gradually increased during the rice and corn cropping periods. Bulk density and soil resistance at 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depths in the shallow and deep plowed plots, respectively, did not significantly differ at any growth stage of the crop. Bulk density and soil resistance at 20-30 em depth of the deep plowed plot were significantly lower than the shallow plowed at early growth stage. Mulching did not affect bulk density.
Mulching reduced the estimated total soil water evaporation by 41-48 percent and also the soil temperature at 0-10 em depth by 3°C. However, mulching increased root density. The root density of corn was higher in deep plowed than in shallow plowed plots. Mulching or deep plowing with any level of nitrogen fertilization significantly increased rice root density at 90 days after emergence (DAE). At 150 kg N/ha, deep plowing resulted in significantly higher corn root density in 30-40 em depth than the shallow plowing at 60 DAE; mulching gave significantly higher rice density than non-mulching at 50 DAE.
Nitrogen fertilizer application s ignificantly increased root density, plant height, leaf area index, grain yield, and nitrogen content of grain and straw or stover. It also increased water use efficiency.
Plowing depth s ignificantly affected only corn plant height and leaf area index at 30 DAE. Mulching sign ificantly increased plant height of rice at 14 and 90 DAE and of corn at 30 DAE. It also significantly increased corn leaf area index at 30 and 60 DAE. Soil moisture availability during corn cropping was lower than that in rice. Mulching significantly increased corn yield by 30 percent. At any level of nitrogen fertilizer application, mulching significantly increased corn grain yield.
The water use model reliability predicted the daily soil moisture content of the root zone of rice and corn. The estimated total transpiration accounted for the 82-96 percent of the variation in grain yield of rice and corn. However, estimated total water use accounted for 64-82 percent of the variation in grain yield of both crops.