Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:52:22.284Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Experiments comparing ‘break crops’ as a preparation for winter wheat followed by spring barley

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

R. D. Prew
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts.
G. V. Dyke
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts.

Summary

Oats, clover, beans (Vicia) and maize were tested as ‘break crops’ in three experiments on land cropped frequently with wheat or barley. Barley was used as a ‘no-break’ control treatment. Test crops were winter wheat followed by spring barley; they received N-fertilizer at four rates. After barley wheat had much take-all (Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici); all the break crops decreased the take-all effectively and equally. Other soil-borne diseases were unimportant. N-fertilizer required for best yields was less, by 100 kg N/ha after clover and by 50 kg after beans, or maize, than after barley or oats. Best yields after oats, beans, clover were respectively I·O, 1·2, 1·4 t/ha better than after barley. Differences in take-all explain much of these effects. Ploughed-in trefoil did not affect take-all but gave small increases in yield. Percentage N in wheat grain was increased by fertilizer-N; it was greater after barley, maize or clover than after oats. Effects on the following barley, except those of N-fertilizer, were small.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Avery, B. W. (1964). The soils and land use of the district around Aylesbury and Hemel Hempstead. Memoirs Soil Survey of Great Britain. H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Cooke, G. W. (1967). The Control of Soil Fertility. London: Crosby Lockwood.Google Scholar
Dyke, G. V. (1974). Comparative Experiments with Field Crops. London: Butterworths.Google Scholar
Dyke, G. V., Patterson, H. D. & Barnes, T. W. (1977). The Woburn long-term experiment on green manuring, 1936–67; results with barley. Rothamsted Experimental Station Report for 1976, part 2, pp. 119152.Google Scholar
Dyke, G. V. & Slope, D. B. (1978). Effects of previous legume and oat crops on grain yield and take-all in spring barley. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 91, 443451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garrett, S. D. & Mann, H. H. (1948). Soil conditions and the take-all disease of wheat. X. Control of the disease under continuous cultivation of a spring sown cereal. Annals of Applied Biology 35, £435–442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, D. M. & Watson, R. D. (1974). Nitrogen form and plant disease. Annual Review of Phytopathology 12, 139165.Google Scholar
Large, E. C. (1954). Growth stages in cereals. Illustration of the Feekes scale. Plant Pathology 3, 128129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawes, J. B. & Gilbert, J. H. (1894). Rotation of crops. Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 5, 585646.Google Scholar
Prew, R. D. (1977). Studies of the spread, survival and control of take-all and other foot and root rot diseases of wheat and barley. Ph.D. thesis. University of London.Google Scholar
Rothamsted Experimental Station (1970). Numerical Results of the Field Experiments 1969, pp. 218219.Google Scholar
Rothamsted Experimental Station (1971). Numerical Results of the Field Experiments 1970, pp. 207208.Google Scholar
Rothamsted Experimental Station (1972). Yields of the Field Experiments 1971, pp. 220222.Google Scholar