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Impacts of different mulching patterns in rainfall-harvesting planting on soil water and spring corn growth development in semihumid regions of China

Soil Research, ISSN: 1838-675X, Vol: 55, Issue: 3, Page: 285-295
2017
  • 22
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 27
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    22
    • Citation Indexes
      22
  • Captures
    27

Article Description

Rain-harvesting planting can improve crop biomass and enhance precipitation use efficiency in rainfed semiarid areas. In this study, field trials were conducted during summer 2007-2010 to determine the impacts of different mulching patterns in rainfall harvesting planting on spring corn growth and development in a typical semihumid dryland farming area of the Loess Plateau in China, which is characterised by spring droughts. Rain-harvesting ridges and planting furrows were mulched with 8% biodegradable film (RCSB), liquid film (RCSL), or not mulched (RCSN), and bare land drilling without mulching served as the control (CF). We found that the rain-harvesting effects of ridges and the evaporation-inhibiting and moisture-conserving effects of mulching materials during the spring corn growing season significantly increased water storage in the 0-100cm soil layer (P<0.05) compared with CF, where mulching was more beneficial than the non-mulching treatments. In the 100-200cm soil layers, there were no significant effects (P>0.05) of the treatments on water storage. During 2007-2010, the average plant height increased by 26.6%, 15.4%, and 11.1% under RCSB, RCSL, and RCSN relative to CF respectively, whereas the per plant biomass increased by 26.6%, 15.4%, and 11.1% under these treatments, and the grain yield increased by 32.3%, 17.5%, and 15.0%. Therefore, in the semihumid dryland farming areas of the Loess Plateau, rain-harvesting planting greatly increased the growth, development, and dry matter accumulation by spring corn, thereby enhancing its biomass yield, whereas the plastic-covered ridges and furrows mulched with biodegradable films substantially increased the yield-enhancing effects.

Bibliographic Details

Xiaolong Ren; Peng Zhang; Xiaoli Liu; Shahzad Ali; Xiaoli Chen; Zhikuan Jia

CSIRO Publishing

Environmental Science; Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Earth and Planetary Sciences

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