EFFECT OF INTER-ROW TILLAGE METHODS OF WIDE-ROW PLANTINGS OF PERENNIAL GRASSES ON THEIR PRODUCTIVITY
The article presents the study findings concerning the perennial grass seed yields in the organic farming system. The study objective was to obtain the experimental data and to assess the efficiency of the inter-row soil tilling methods of wide-row plantings of perennial grasses using the example of common timothy. The study was conducted on the experimental field with organic crop rotation. The grass was sown with 0.7 m inter-row spacing. On the experimental sites with the wide-row seeding, various types of inter-row weed control were used: no tillage; removal of weeds without tillage (mowing); tillage with cutting the weed roots one time and two times; tillage with universal rotary harrow (БРУ-0.7) one time and two times; tillage with cutting the weed roots with the use of the “guiding slot” one time and two times. The following factors were determined in the study: the number and the height of generative stems; the seed yield; the height and mass of weeds in the inter-row spacing. The study output was the mathematical and graphical dependencies of the seed yield on the inter-row tillage options. The maximum yield of grass seeds of 4.3 hundred kg/ ha and the maximum number of generative stems (410) was recorded under the mechanical weed control without soil tillage (mowing). The resulting dependences were shown in graphs.