RESISTANCE TO PENETRATION IN SOIL CULTIVATED WITH SUGARCANE IN DIFFERENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Abstract

Sugarcane has its productivity influenced by the availability of water and nutrients. Being the understanding of the influence of the irrigation system over time on soil compaction is important for the improvement of the management adopted in the production of this crop. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the influence of the three irrigation systems: pivot and reel, reainfed, and reel, on the resistance to root penetration of the sugarcane crop, in a period of six years. The work was carried out under field conditions, in the experimental design of a 3 x 6 factorial scheme in 24 replicates, in which the first factor consists of three irrigation systems: conventional (clean water) reel; pivot and reel (fertigation); and rainfed cultivation. And the second factor is related to different periods under irrigation: Cane-plant area, second cut area, third cut area, fourth cut area, fifth cut area, reaching the sixth cut. A penetrometer was used to determine the resistance to root penetration. At the end of this experiment, the results showed that the use of the pivot and reel irrigation system is the one that least affects the resistance to soil penetration, being the most suitable for use