Combined effect of soil practices and chemical treatments on weeds growth, soil features, and yield performance in field wheat crop under Mediterranean climate

Received: September 3rd, 2022 ; Accepted: November 15th, 2022 ; Published: December 7th, 2022 ; Correspondence: i-guedioura@hotmail.comSoil management techniques influence the biological and physicochemical properties of the soil and lead to changes in soil quality and cover and thus on crop profitability and yield. In this study, the effects of short-term tillage and no-tillage methods combined with a chemical treatment using Glyphosate on weed abundance, selected soil physical properties and yield components were evaluated in durum wheat under Mediterranean climatic conditions. The no-tillage (NT) treatment resulted in higher weed community density during wheat cultivation and moisture consumption than the conventional tillage treatment. The tillage practice and the application of Glyphosate showed a very high efficiency on weeds. Furthermore, the results obtained showed a significant variation and effect of the treatments on the soil characteristics. The application of the no-tillage technique induced a small increase in soil moisture at the seed germination stage (25.6%), while at the last sampling a small increase was recorded in the CT treatment (9.5% for CT and 8.8% for NT). The results of the soil porosity, showed during the whole test period high values in the conventional technique (with or without herbicide application); but for the resistance to soil penetration, the results showed higher values in the no-till technique. Finally, the effect of the tillage system on crop yield was evaluated. In our study, the results showed that significant increases in the number of heads per m2 (351.3 heads per m2 ), the number of grains per head (45.8) and the weight of 1,000 grains (41.2 g) were obtained with the tillage treatment combined with glyphosate application. When comparing the two tillage methods, the highest values were always revealed with the tillage technique