Variation of Subsoiling Effect at Wing Mounting Heights on Soil Properties and Crop Growth in Wheat–Maize Cropping System

Xuezhen Wang, Hao Zhou, Yuxiang Huang and Jiangtao Ji ()
Additional contact information
Xuezhen Wang: College of Agricultural Equipment Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471000, China
Hao Zhou: College of Agricultural Equipment Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471000, China
Yuxiang Huang: College of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang 712100, China
Jiangtao Ji: College of Agricultural Equipment Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471000, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: Subsoiling is an effective practice to promote better soil water infiltration and crop growth. The information regarding the variation and persistence of subsoiling effects with different soil disturbance on soil properties and crop growth was absent in previous research. In this study, the effects of wing mounting height (h) (75–155 mm) during subsoiling on soil disturbance at various layers, soil properties and crop performance were investigated using in situ field experiments from 2019 to 2021 in winter wheat–summer maize rotations. The experimental field soil was covered with crop stubble and crop straw was removed before subsoiling or sowing the next crop. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess different subsoiling treatment effects on tested variables, including soil moisture content, bulk density, plant diameter, plant height, dry root weight, root number, yield, and yield components of crops. Means between subsoiling treatments were compared using Duncan’s multiple range tests. Based on ANOVA outputs, the h significantly ( p < 0.05) affected soil moisture content in the first growing season of winter wheat (WW1), soil bulk density, number of roots and panicle number and grain yield of WW1, and thousand kernel weight (TKW) of both WW1 and summer maize (SM). Decreasing h overall gave better soil properties and crop performance. Decreased subsoiling effects were found on aspects of insignificant difference in subsequent grain yield of SM and winter wheat in the second growing season (WW2). These findings had implications for designing higher-performance winged subsoilers, as well as selection of subsoiling frequency.

Keywords: crop growth; soil disturbance; soil properties; subsoiling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/10/1684/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/10/1684/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:10:p:1684-:d:941136

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().