The effects of tillage and irrigation on sweet corn (Zea mays L.) development, yield, and water use

Graduation date: 1985'Jubilee' sweet corn was grown under conventional tillage and\ud strip tillage in 1982 and under conventional tillage, strip tillage\ud and no-till culture in 1983. Effects on soil temperature,\ud stand establishment, plant development parameters, overall yield,\ud yield components, and water use efficiency were measured.\ud In 1982, conventional tillage appeared to have a higher yield\ud than strip tillage but the difference was not significant. The\ud 1983 conventional tillage treatment was significantly higher than\ud the strip tillage treatment yield, which in turn was greater than\ud for that of no-till. Yield parameters in both seasons indicated\ud the strip tillage resulted in fewer and less mature ears at harvest\ud than did the conventional tillage treatment. The yield\ud parameters from the no-till treatment in 1983 were also lower than\ud those of the conventional tillage treatment. Depression in\ud plant development parameters and resulting yield appeared to be\ud strongly related to lower soil temperature the first 30 days after\ud planting, which was always highest in the conventional tillage\ud treatment unless the soil was recently hydrated. The cropwater\ud production functions for yield vs. evapotranspiration were\ud different in scale but similar in slope for the three tillage\ud treatments in 1983. The strip tillage and no-till methods did not\ud use water as efficiently as the conventional tillage method to\ud produce the same unit of yield