Mulching an ultisol in southern Nigeria: Effects on physical properties and maize and cowpea yields

✍ Scribed by Joe S C Mbagwu

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 490 KB
• Volume: 57
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5142
• DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.2740570405

✦ Synopsis

A BSTRA CT

A study carried out for two cropping seasons at Nsukka, southeastern Nigeria, to determine the minimum rate of straw mulch for optimising the physical conditions of the topsoil (0-20 cm depth) of a fragile ultisol and maize (Zea mays L) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L Walp) yields, found that soil water sorptivity, transmissivity, steady state injiltration rate, cumulative injiltration after 90 min and time to attain steady state injiltration were optimal at the 2.0 t ha-' mulch rate. Also, at this rate of mulching, water retention and per cent water-stable aggregates > 0 5 mm were maximal whereas soil compaction (measured by dry bulk density) was minimal. Between 2 and I0 days after saturation the surface soil had reductions of 11, 6, 6 and 6% in volumetric water content, respectively, on the control (0), 20, 4-0 and 8.0 t ha-' mulched plots, mainly due to evaporation. Supra-optimal soil temperatures ( > 30°C) were observed only on the bare plots whereas no signijicant diflerences in maximum soil temperature among the mulchedplots were noticed. Maize and cowpea yields were optimal at the 4.0 t ha-' rate with respective increases over the bare plots of 80 and 67% at this rate.