The effect of tillage system on soil physical properties in Eddammer Locality of Northern Sudan

Experiments were conducted for two successive summer seasons 2004 and 2005 at the Horticultural field of Hudeiba Agricultural Research Station out to investigate the effect of five tillage systems and two irrigation water regimes on some soil physical properties. The studied tillage systems were, disc plow with 20cm plowing depth, chisel plow with 20cm plowing depth, oxen driven plow with 15- 20cm plowing depth, disc harrow with 10 cm plowing depth and no tillage. The water regimes were 100% and 75% of crop water requirement. Generally disc plowing and chisel plowing were the most effective tillage on soil parameters. The highest resistance to penetration after tillage treatments was recorded by disc harrow, 6.9 kg/cm 2 at 10cm depth. The soil resistance after harvest with plots with 75% of crop water requirement was found to be 8.8 kg/ cm 2 for the disc plow, 8.6 kg/ cm 2 for the chisel plow, 9.2 kg/cm 2 for the disc harrow, 6.5 kg/ cm 2 for the oxen driven plow and 9.3 kg/cm2 for no tillage. The soil penetration resistance after harvest for plots with 100% crop water requirement was found to be 8.6 kg/ cm 2 for the disc plow, 4.5 kg/ cm 2 for chisel plow, 15.2 kg/ cm 2 for the disc harrow, 3.9 kg/ cm 2 for the oxen driven plow and 6.5 kg/cm 2 for no tillage. The Bulk densities after Conventional tillage treatments were generally lower than the minimum tillage treatments. Disc ploughing recorded 0.9 gmcm -3 at soil depth 0-15 cm while chisel recorded 1.01 cm -3 at the same depth. The differences between treatments at the upper two depths 0-15 cm & 15-30 cm were significant at 5% level