Ridge Cultivation for the Adaption of Fodder Maize ( Zea mays L.) to Suboptimal Conditions of Low Mountain Ranges in Organic Farming in Central Europe

Tsvetelina Krachunova (), Martin Scholz, Sonoko D. Bellingrath-Kimura and Knut Schmidtke
Additional contact information
Tsvetelina Krachunova: Faculty of Agriculture/Environment/Chemistry, Dresden University of Applied Science, 01326 Dresden, Germany
Martin Scholz: Faculty of Agriculture/Environment/Chemistry, Dresden University of Applied Science, 01326 Dresden, Germany
Sonoko D. Bellingrath-Kimura: Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF e.V.), 15374 Müncheberg, Germany
Knut Schmidtke: Faculty of Agriculture/Environment/Chemistry, Dresden University of Applied Science, 01326 Dresden, Germany

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-21

Abstract: Fodder maize cultivation under low mountain conditions in Central Europe presents obstacles for organic dairy farmers; low temperatures and high precipitation values in spring delay the juvenile development of maize, which leads to lower and fluctuating yields. Increasing the soil temperature during the critical growth phase of maize in spring is beneficial for maize cultivation. For this reason, 0.15 m high ridge-row cultivation (RCM) of maize was compared to a typical flat surface cultivation method (FCM) with 0.75 m row spacing in three environments (En) in 2017, 2018 and 2020 on-farm at low mountain sites in Germany. In the experiment, with randomised block design and one-factorial arrangement, soil temperature (ST) at 0.05 m soil depth at midday, field emergence (FE) 4, 8, 16 and 20 days after sowing (DAS), dry matter yields (DM) in every En and plant development and N, P, K content in En 2020 were investigated. RCM led to a significantly higher ST 4 DAS in every En, 12 and 20 days in 2018 and 8 and 16 DAS in 2020. RCM did not accelerate maize FE but positively impacted plant development and starch content. RCM generated a higher dry matter (DM) yield of whole maize plants and corn cobs, and a higher protein yield than FCM. RCM slightly increased the plant-available P and Mg content from 0 to 0.3 m and influenced significantly the mineral N content from 0 to 0.3 m at the beginning of grain development. RCM, a simple cultivation technique, demonstrated benefits for maize cultivation, particularly for climatically marginal locations in Germany.

Keywords: Zea mays L.; ridge cultivation; low mountain ranges; organic farming; Central Europe; dry matter yield (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/3/650/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/3/650/ (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:13:y:2023:i:3:p:650-:d:1092939

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 ().