Abstract

Kahlon M.S. and Singh Gurpreet

Tillage practices affect physico-chemical characteristics of soils and straw yield. Therefore, a field study was conducted for two years (2012-2013 and 2013-2014) with four tillage practices i.e., happy seeder (HS), roto –tillage (RT), no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT). Effect of these treatments was observed on soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil organic carbon content (SOC), Av. N, P and K and straw yield of wheat in two soils i.e., sandy loam (SL) and loamy sand (LS) separately. Among tillage practices, the mean highest SOC was found under HS (3.44 g kg-1 ) followed by RT (3.26 g kg1 ), NT (3.01 g kg-1 ) and the lowest under CT (2.58 g kg-1 ) for SL soil. Mean highest Av. N (kg ha-1 ) was observed under HS (128.4) and the lowest under CT (102.6) for SL soil. Effect of tillage and residue management practices on soil pH, EC and CEC was not significant in both the soils. The mean highest straw yield (t ha-1 ) in SL and LS soil was observed under HS (7.5 and 6.9) followed by RT (7.1 and 6.5), NT (6.8 and 6.2) and least under CT (6.3 and 5.8) in SL and LS soils respectively.