Management effects of crops and crop strip widths on crop yield and conservation of soil and moisture on a limited-resource farm

ABSTRACT:

Terracing and other conventional methods of soil and water conservation are often too expensive for limited-resource farmers to implement. Therefore, research to determine the effects of three strip widths and three vegetable crops on runoff, soil loss, soil moisture, plant canopy, and crop yield was conducted on a small farm. The experimental site was located on a well-drained Baxter cherty silt loam soil (Typic Paleudult) with a 6% slope and a pH of 6.5. Three crops, sweet corn (Lea mays rugose L.), cv. Silver Queen; snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris h.), cv. Contender; and cucumbers (Cucumis sativus L.), cv. Explorer, were planted at three different strip widths (1.8, 5.5, and 7.3 m) in a split-plot design with four replications, where strip widths were the main plots and crops were randomized as subplots. Runoff from the 7.3-m plot width was 60% and 13% less than that from the 1.8-m and 5.5-m plot widths, respectively. Significantly less runoff was obtained from cucumbers than from other crops. Cucumbers allowed less soil loss (1.7 Mg ha⁻¹) than sweet corn (1.8 Mg ha⁻¹) and snap beans (2.1 Mg ha⁻¹). Among the three crops, the most soil water was observed with cucumber. Significantly denser canopy cover and greater moisture was obtained with the 7.3-m strip width for all crops. Cucumber canopy was 11% and 38% greater than that for sweet corn and snap beans, respectively. Sweet corn planted in narrow strips produced a significantly higher yield (37,500 ears ha⁻¹) than sweet corn planted in wide strips (33,600 ears ha⁻¹). The highest yield of snap beans (5,890 kg ha⁻¹) was observed with a 5.5-m strip width, whereas cucumbers produced most (48,710 kg ha⁻¹) in the 7.3-m wide strip.