The Box Plot Experiment in Grossbeeren after six rotations: Effect of fertilization on crop yield

Abstract

The Box Plot Experiment in Grossbeeren was set up in 1972 to investigate the efficiency of diverse fertilization strategies within an irrigated vegetable crop rotation system for three soil types (silty sand, sandy loam, and clayey silt). Here we report on the long-term effects on plant yield after subjecting soils to different fertilization strategies using various organic amendments and amounts of mineral N fertilizer. We estimated that the nitrogen quantity necessary to produce 95% of the plant dry matter yield potential differed between 205, 235, and 350 kg N ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ for clayey silt, sandy loam and silty sand respectively. This mean long-term yield potential was estimated to be about 11.5 tons plant dry matter per hectare per year for both in our experiment with an irrigated vegetable crop rotation as well as in another experiment with an irrigated arable crop rotation in Thyrow, 15 km south of Grossbeeren. Thus, yield potential for a region appears to be highly independent of differences in soil properties and crop rotation when water and nutrient supply were optimal.

Keywords:

• Long-term experiment
• nitrogen fertilizer
• organic amendment
• plant dry matter
• vegetable crops
• yield potential

Acknowledgement

We thank Ruth Willmott (www.bioscript.de) for editing the manuscript.