65 Years Long-term Experiments at Thyrow. Results for Sustainable Crop Production at Sandy Soils

Abstract

In 1937, K. Opitz founded an agricultural experimental station at Thyrow (Brandenburg County, Germany) where field experiments with a duration of 25 to 65 years still are being managed representing classical long-term field experiments. The location is characterized by low soil fertility, low silty sand soil and unstable water supply and represents arable land of low quality in the lowland of Northern Germany. The long-term collection of results of three different experiments lead to the following approaches for sustainable plant production on marginal sand soils: ” In cereal cropping a well-balanced crop rotation is more important than high amounts of soil organic matter. ” Sustainable reproduction of soil organic matter needs at least 10t/ha and year farm yard manure or straw manure in every second year. ” Irrigation is effective only if additional mineral N fertilizer is applied.

Keywords:

• Crop Rotation
• Organic Manuring
• Mineral Fertilizing
• Irrigation
• Soil Organic Matter
• Yield Formation