Effects of rototiller forward speed on soil compaction and some soil physical properti̇es

One of the most important usage of tillage equipment is seed bed preparation for agricultural production. The aim of this research is to determine the effect of rotary tiller used in seed bed preparation at different forward speed on soil compaction and some soil physical properties (soil moisture, soil volume weight, soil porosity, soil penetration resistance, soil slice thickness and mean weight diameters). Rotary tiller with L shaped blade is widely used for hoeing and seed bed preparation in a single pass. Rotary tiller used in the experiment; 2 (A), 3 (B), 4 (C) and 5 (D) km h-1 were used at four different forward speed. Undisturbed soil samples were taken from 0-10, 10-20, and 20-30 cm soil depths using steel rings for soil bulk density. A penetrologger was used to determine the penetration resistance. Sieve analysis was performed by using sieve set to control soil mean weight diameter. According to the research results, for A, B, C, and D treatments, average soil bulk densities were determined as 1.23, 1.18, 1.18, and 1.24 g cm-3 respectively. The difference between the bulk density was not significant depending on the treatments. In addition, when each soil depth was compared on the basis of treatments, it was determined that there was no difference between the treatments (P>0.05). There was no difference between the treatments in terms of average soil penetration resistances at 0-80 cm soil depth. However, at the soil depth of 0-20 cm, there was a difference between the treatment in term of penetration resistance. Penetration resistance at 0-20 cm soil depth were determined as 1.47, 1.24, 1.18, and 1.29 MPa for A, B, C, and D treatments, respectively. While the penetration resistance of A treatment was higher than the other treatments, the difference between B, C, and D treatment was insignificant. In D treatment, due to the increase in forward speed, the depth of tillage decreased and increased the penetration resistance. Key Words: Forward speed, Mean weight diameter, Rotary tiller, Tillage, Soil compaction. 2019, 48 pages