Impact of organic and conventional management and tillage operations on soil quality and productivity in the Montepaldi Long-Term Experiment (MoLTE)

Summary

The goal of the research was to assess the impact of different management (organic and conventional) and tillage (plowing, chisel plowing, disk harrowing) on soil quality, and to investigate the response of two crops, barley and sunflower respectively, in terms of yield. The indicators used for the soil quality evaluation were: earthworm's abundance, root's density, soil compaction score obtained with spade test, bulk density, soil penetration resistance and chemical analysis. Data were collected from November 2015 to September 2017, then statistical analysis, based on ANOVA test, was performed.
Main results show that conventional system is more productive than organic and there is not significant difference between plowing and reduced tillage operations regarding yield; earthworms are more abundant under reduced tillage; root's density is about 20% higher in organic soils but phosphorous decreased by about 40% in 25 years.