Abstract

The issue of tillage is one of the most important in agricultural farming since it directly affects the quality of crops. Therefore, this paper presents the materials of scientific research on the change in the parameters of the water properties of the alluvial soil depending on the influence of the aftereffect of the methods and the depth of the primary cultivation. The research was conducted at the production fields of the Teplichnoye JSC in the Oktyabrsky District (Republic of Mordovia, Russia) during 2018 to 2020. The main method of the study is a field one-factor experiment in triplicate. It was found that deep plowing in the second year of aftereffect improved the water properties of the subsurface soil horizon; namely, the total, capillary, and minimal moisture capacity had increased compared to traditional plowing. Subsoiling reduced the reserves of productive soil moisture before the growing season of spring wheat and increased its water consumption since in those variants the plants used moisture at a lower rate. The minimum water consumption was observed in the variants with moldboard plowing at depths of 26–28 and 32–34 cm, and the maximum water consumption was noted after subsoiling and plowing to a depth of 20–22 cm. Concerning the conditions of this region, the study has substantiated the most effective combination of depth and method of tillage and their influence on the water properties of the soil in the aftereffect. There is a lot of data on the influence of different cultivation methods on the hydrophysical properties of soils, but the preservation of their effect for subsequent years has practically not been studied.