Background
Numerous options exist for managing soil water repellence on deep sands including improved furrow sowing methods, strategic deep tillage and clay spreading or delving. For the water repellent gravel soils it is less clear which options are consistently effective and some of the existing options may not be appropriate.
Aim
To determine which management options can successfully overcome soil water repellence and improve crop yields on water repellent forest gravel soils.
Trial details
| Property | Upwood, north Kojonup |
|---|---|
| Soil type | Loamy forest gravel |
| Crop/variety | Hindmarsh barley |
| Paddock rotation | 2014 - canola, 2013 - barley |
| Treatments | 1) Control – untreated (off-row sown from 2016) 2) On-row seeding (from 2016) 3) Wetter banded on furrow at 2L/ha (on-row sown from 2016) 4) Wetter banded on furrow at 2L/ha (off-row sown from 2016) 5) Wetter banded with seed at 2L/ha 6) Blanket wetter (applied every second year) 7) One-way disc ploughing – with pre-emergent herbicide 8) One-way disc ploughing – no pre-emergent herbicide 9) Mouldboard ploughing – with pre-emergent herbicide 10) Mouldboard ploughing – no pre-emergent herbicide |
| Replicates | Three |
| Sowing date | >4 May 2015 |
| Seeding rate | 100kg/ha |
| Fertiliser (kg/ha) | Pre-emergent: 100kg/ha Urea; 120kg/ha Gusto Gold Post-emergent: 50L/ha UAN |
| Growing season rainfall | April – October: 251mm |
| Herbicide | Pre-emergent: 1.8L/ha Glyphosate; 2L/ha Trifluralin (excluding selected plough treatments) Post-emergent: 670mL/ha Velocity; 300mL/ha Axial |
| Insecticide | Pre-emergent: 500mL/ha Chlorpyrifos; 200mL/ha Bifenthrin Post-emergent: 100mL/ha Transform |