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Sugarbeet Response to Subsoiling and Wheel Traffic

Dep. of Crop & Soil Sciences, Michigan State Univ., E. Lansing, MI 48824-1325

^* Corresponding author.

Normal tillage practices often create poor physical conditions for crop growth on lake plain soils in Michigan. Tillage studies were conducted in 1983 on Parkhill loam (fine-loamy, mixed, nonacidic, mesic Mollic Haplaquept) and from 1983 to 1985 on Charity clay (fine, illitic (calcareous), mesic Aerie Haplaquept) to evaluate the potential for increasing sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris L.) yield by reducing the physical limitations of these soils. Treatments consisted of eight combinations of a primary tillage and secondary tillage variable. Primary tillage was applied in the fall and consisted of subsoiling and moldboard plowing (SMP), subsoiling and shallow chiseling (SCH), moldboard plowing (MP), or shallow chiseling (CH). The secondary tillage vairable consisted of the presence or absence of tractor wheel traffic occurring during seedbed preparation. Response of sugarbeet ‘US-H20’ and ‘US-H23’ was evident each year and was attributed in part to improved soil aeration where subsoiling was performed and where wheel traffic was absent. Response was greatest in 1983 when subsoiling increased root yield of US-H20 by 10.7 Mg ha^–1 on Parkhill loam and by 7.6 Mg ha^–1 on Charity clay. Elimination of preplant wheel traffic increased root yields by an average of 8.3 Mg ha^–1 on Charity clay that year. Recoverable sucrose yield was affected in proportion to root yield each year because tillage had no effect on recoverable sucrose concentration. The need to minimize wheel traffic in sugarbeet production systems, regardless of the primary tillage practices employed, was evidenced by results of this study.

Received for publication November 9, 1989.