ABSTRACT:
Researchers in the University of Tennessee Vegetable Initiative wanted convincing proof that no-till transplanted vegetables and tobacco reduced negative environmental impacts, as has been proven for no-till seeding of other crops. This led to a two-year replicated field plot study on two soils with slopes typical of east Tennessee agriculture, planted in tomatoes or tobacco with either a no-till transplanter or a more standard tillage-based system. The runoff from the plots was collected and analyzed for sediment and nutrient content. In comparison to the tillage-based system, no-till transplanting on average reduced erosion by 92 percent and average total Kjeldahl nitrogen surface movement off of the plots by 83 percent. The no-till transplanting also reduced total phosphorus and total nitrate plus nitrite surface water runoff significantly (at α = 0.05) in two of three comparisons. Results for total runoff showed no significant trend across tillage types, soils, or crops. Finally, phosphate surface water runoff was a very small portion of total phosphorus movement but showed mixed results, with significantly higher no-till system values in two of three cases. These results demonstrate that no-till transplanting can substantially reduce the overall environmental impact of specialty crop production in comparison to tillage-based systems.
Footnotes
Daniel C. Yoder is a professor, Teffany L. Cope is a former research associate, and Jim B. Wills is a professor of biosystems engineering and environmental science, and H. Paul Denton is a professor of plant sciences, all at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee.
- Copyright 2005 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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