Effects of Different Soil Tillage Methods on Wheat Yields in Sunflower

ABSTRACT: This research was carried out to determine the best economical seed bed preparation method comparing reduced soil tillage, zero tillage, and traditional tillage systems on sunflower-wheat crop rotation for wheat production. The experiments were conducted at Thrace Agricultural Research Institute between 2001 and 2005 using randomized Complete Block Design (stripe plots) with three replications. Five different seed bed preparation methods were evaluated. In this research beside seed yield the other yield components plant height, spike length, seed number per spike, spike number per square meter, 1000 seed weight, and test weight were evaluated.

According to econimical research results by 2006’s prices for bread wheat production among five different soil tillage systems in Edirne dry conditions after sunflower harvest “goble disk + cultivator + tillage + conventional planter” ranked first with 5636.0 kg/ha seed yield, 664.9 YTL/ha net income and 0.23 YTL/kg crop production cost was determined by the best profitable seed bed preparation.

Key words: Wheat(Triticum aestivum L.), soil tillage, reduced soil tillage, seed yield.

YUKARI