Evaluating Strip and No-Till Maintenance of Perennial Groundcovers for Annual Grain Production

Perennial groundcover (PGC) merges scalable soil and water conservation with high-yielding row crops, enhancing ecosystem services of annual grain crop production. However, ineffective suppression increases competition between the crop, reducing yield. The objective this study was to assess effectiveness three Kentucky bluegrass (KBG) methods each at narrow wide widths on maize (Zea mays L.) growth development in evenly spaced PGC, compared alternating PGC swards a no-PGC conventional tillage control. Suppression for included two different strip implements, completing either shallow or deep fracture, mechanical banded sprayer no-tillage chemical suppression. We measured weekly plant height, phenological stage development, reflected red:far-red (R:FR) ratio, early vegetative final density, stover yield, yield components kernel rows ear−1, kernels row−1, ear length, weight, grass frequency, weed community. In 2020, (11.38 Mg ha−1) similar control (12.78 greater than (9.62 ha−1). Maize systems 2021 (7.41 ha−1), due drought high coefficient variation. Weed community both years. A response observed across methods. Groundcover dormancy may be needed conjunction effective and/or support production PGC.