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Soil Nitrogen Availability after Long-term Continuous No-tillage and Conventional Tillage Corn Production¹

ABSTRACT

Several short-term studies of no-tillage (NT) vs. conventional tillage (CT) have suggested that N availability is lower in NT. Less is known about the long-term effects of NT on soil processes and N availability. Recent observations of a NT vs. CT experiment, initiated in 1970 on a Maury silt loam (Typic Paleudalfs), are presented here. During the first 9 yr of this study corn (Zea mays L.) yields with no N fertilizer were consistently greater in CT than NT, but at high N rates yields were approximately equal. Since 1979, there have been no consistent differences between the tillage systems with regard to yield without N or in relative response to N. Inorganic soil N during 1981 and 1982 was usually equal but occasionally greater in NT compared to CT, in contrast to previous observations during the early years of this experiment. Soil N mineralization was estimated in 1982 by a laboratory soil core incubation technique and by observing dilution rates of labeled N added to field microplots. Both of these approaches suggested that N mineralization was at least as great in long-term NT plots as in long-term CT plots. We suggest that the lower availability of N frequently observed in NT soils, in some cases can be a transient effect. In this experiment availability of soil N in NT apparently approached that of CT after approximately 10 yr.

¹ Published with the approval of the director of the Kentucky Agric. Exp. Stn. as Journal Article no. 86-3-5.

² Former Graduate Assistant, Associate Professor and Professor, respectively, Dep. of Agronomy, Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40546. Dr. Rice's present address is Dep. of Crop and Soil Sciences, Michigan State Univ.

Received for publication October 7, 1985.

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