ABSTRACT:
While important crops in the Southeast, flue-cured and hurley tobacco are erosion-prone. Soil losses from tobacco fields far exceed the state and national averages as well as soil loss tolerances. A 2-year study was conducted in North Carolina's Coastal Plain to compare soil loss, yield, and quality between conventionally tilled tobacco and no-till tobacco transplanted directly into a killed rye mulch. In the first year soil loss on a Johns sandy loam (Aquic Hapludult) with 1.3% slope was 20 times greater in the conventionally tilled tobacco than in the no-till tobacco (2,457 vs. 121 kg/ha). Soil loss the second year on a Goldsboro loamy sand (Aquic Paleudults) with a 3.1% slope was 90 times greater in the conventional tillage system (9,004 vs. 101 kg/ha). Quality, value per hectare, and price of tobacco were essentially the same for both systems. But yields on no-till transplanted treatments averaged 13% less than conventionally grown tobacco.
Footnotes
Sandra D. Wood, formerly an undergraduate student, Department of Soil Science, North Carolina State University, is a soil and water representative with the North Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Community Development, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403, and Arch D. Worsham is a professor of crop science, Department of Crop Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, 27695-7601. This research was funded by the R. J. Reynolds Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program administered through the Department of Crop Science, North Carolina State University. Paper No. 10081 of the Journal Series of the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service, Raleigh. The authors acknowledge the technical assistance of Richard Lemons, NCSU, for the field research and the helpful advice of Bobby Brock and George Longdate in preparation of the manuscript.
- Copyright 1986 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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