Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) seeds are susceptible to low temperature and excess moisture in soil during seed emergence in years with high rainfall and low temperature in spring. Therefore, a two-year field experiment was carried out to evaluate effects of ridge tillage formed in autumn (RT-I), ridge tillage formed about a month before planting (RT-II) and flat conventional tillage (CT) culti...

In cold climates, snowmelt runoff often exceeds rainfall runoff during the year. Conservation tillage practices may be effective in reducing runoff during the cropping season but not during the snowmelt period. A plot study was conducted on a cropped hillslope to assess how tillage practices affect snowmelt runoff and the associated losses of sediment, phosphorus (P), and chemical oxygen demand...

Abstract: Ridge culture is a special conservation tillage method, but the long-term influence of this tillage system on soil aggregate-size stability in paddy fields is largely unknown in southwest of china. The objectives of this paper are to evaluate soil aggregates stability and to determine the relationship between SOC and soil aggregate stability.Soil samples at 0-20 cm layer were adopted ...

In 1987, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) National Sedimentation Laboratory, in cooper­ ation with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experi­ ment Station (MAFES) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), initiated an interdisciplinary research project to develop profitable and environmentally sustainable conservation production systems for silty upland...

Data from runoff plots operated over a ®ve year period show that signi®cantly less overland ̄ow is generated with a seasonal no-till ridge system than with contour tillage or straight tillage systems. Seasonal no-till ridge is the optimum system for increasing the availability of water for rainfed agriculture on the dryland soils in the hilly area of Sichuan Province, China. # 2000 Published by...

Elevated nitrate concentrations in ground water can be a problem in agricultural areas, especially where soils are sandy. Tillage operations, such as ridge tillage (RT) and no tillage (NT) can reduce runoff and erosion but leaching of soluble nutrients could adversely impact groundwater. In a 2-year study, Br was used to trace the effects of fertilizer placement on solute movement under corn (Z...

In order to parameterize horizontal soil fluxes produced by wind over tillage ridges, eight-ridge configurations composed of sandy soil and exhibiting ridge heights to ridge spacing (RH/RS) ratios ranging from 0.18 to 0.38 were experimented in a wind tunnel. These experiments are used to develop a parameterization of the horizontal fluxes over tillage ridged surfaces based only on the geometric...

ABSTRACT The population density of the reniform nematode, Rotylenchulus reniformis, was monitored at depths of 0 to 30, 30 to 60, 60 to 90, and 90 to 120 cm in a tillage and crop sequence trial in south Texas in 2000 and 2001. Main plots were subjected to three different tillage systems: conventional tillage (moldboard plowing and disking), ridge tillage, and no-tillage. Subplots were planted w...

Wind erosion in agricultural soils is dependent, in part, on the aerodynamic roughness length (z0) produced by tillage ridges. Although previous studies have related z0 to ridge characteristics (ridge height (RH) and spacing (RS)), these relationships have not been tested for tillage ridges observed in the North African agricultural fields. In these regions, due to climate and soil conditions, ...

Introduction ............................................................................................................................2 Organic Farming & the Tillage Dilemma .........................................................................3 Mulch Tillage .........................................................................................................................5 Ridge Ti...