SOIL HARDNESS RESEARCH RESULTS FOR «ELITA» FIELDS

Abstract

The «Elita» fields are located on sandy loam and sandy soils, which have different hardness in different areas of the same field. Such a characteristic of the soil does not contribute to the realization of the potential of oilseed plants. The problem becomes particularly urgent in the event of a critical decrease in moisture in the arable layer of the soil. In fact, oilseed plants, thanks to their root system, are able to use the moisture below the arable layer of the soil, when the hardness of the soil in these layers is optimal for the penetration of the root system. Therefore, a methodology has been developed and a study has been carried out on the soil hardness of the defined «Elita» fields in order to optimize the work on their deep loosening. The research used a methodology based on the use of the Lan-M PRO hardness tester, a mobile application for creating a uniform grid of hardness measurements on a given field with reference to GPS coordinates, and the FIELD-M Archive Viewer 2.4 program. According to the developed methodology, soil hardness was measured at two points on each hectare of the field. On the basis of the values obtained as a result of the research, cartograms of field hardness were created for soil layers at depths from 25 cm to 50 cm with steps of 5 cm. Based on the analysis of the cartograms, recommendations for deep loosening of the studied fields were developed. The obtained recommendations make it possible to limit the tillage depth of the majority of the fields to 45 cm. It was also established that in order to take into account the variation in the distribution of soil hardness of the fields according to their area and depth, shown on the cartograms, it is necessary to study and implement new principles of deep tillage. By introducing new principles of depth processing, it will be possible to develop a tool capable of modifying the depth of each individual organ in real time according to cartograms.