WINTER TILLAGE SYSTEMS AND THEIR EFFECT ON ASPARAGUS YIELD AND WEED POPULATION

Asparagus management in the Mediterranean region of Chile usually includes a late winter tillage to provide weed control and softening crusted soil to facilitate spear emergence.
In this work we assessed the effect of 3 tillage systems, disk harrow, rototiller and no tillage, during winter, with and without leaving fern residues in the field, on asparagus yield and weed population from 1992 to 1995.

No significant differences were observed in commercial yield between the different tillage systems nor between the presence or absence of asparagus fern residues in the field.
However, a significant interaction between tillage and year was detected, due to a severe reduction in the number of spears per plant and yield, in the disk harrow treatment during the last year.
This could be due to mechanical damage of the crown.

There was no effect of the tillage treatments on soil compactness and fungal diseases incidence, like Phytophthora, Fusarium moniliforme and F. oxysporum.

Annual weed population was significantly lower in no tillage treatments, therefore this management system is recommended as a way of diminishing production costs.

IX International Asparagus Symposium

M.I. González, A. France, A. Del Pozo, A. Pedreros, V. Kramm

Asparagus officinalis, biomass, Fusarium, zero tillage

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1999.479.62