Relations between crop rotation with pea and soil structure

Dimitrios Bartzialis, Elpiniki Skoufogianni, Nicholaos Danalatos, Kyriakos Giannoulis

Abstract: Agricultural practices such as crop rotation affect soil physical, chemical and biological properties. Legumes crop effect has been shown to provide several agro-ecological services as previous crop. The aim of the present field study was to examine the effect of legumes in a crop rotation scenario to the soil structure by incorporating green biomass at the flowering stage of pea. Two field experiments were established in two different soils (sandy and clayey) for three years, where four different nitrogen dressings and three different cultivation practices using pea in rotation were used. Soil samples were collected at two depths (0-20 and 20-40 cm), five times during the experimentation from the establishment till the end. An easier and rapidly soil classification according to the agglomerate stability was used through the coefficient of instability β. It was found that in the sandy soil both green and pea rotation had a significant effect on the improvement of the soil structure resulting from the decrease in the β instability index. Improving the soil structure will also lead to higher yields to the following crop.

Keywords: crop rotation; green fertilization; legumes; pea; soil structure

Date published: 2019-12-19