Methodological approaches to the construction of a 3D soil model in potato farming
An important criterion for the potato quality as a commodity product is the uniformity of tubers by a number of parameters including the size of tubers, their form and the components content. In production, it is achieved through the process of potato varieties selection that meet the quality criteria and the creation of optimal field environment for their implementation. The conditions for adequate development of plants primarily include nutrition, optimal moisture content, soil compaction, microbial activity. The paper summarizes the research on the three-dimensional organization of soddy podzolic soils using the data about the spatial variability of fertility, moisture, compaction, hardness, microbial activity. Besides, the development of methodological approaches for the technical specification preparation for the construction of the volumetric functional soil model for the potatoes cultivation using 3D geostatistics methods is presented. A methodical approach to the multi-layer volumetric functional model designing by means of 3-dimensional methods of geostatistics in fertility, moisture, compaction, hardness, soil biological activity has been developed. It is known that outdoor and subsurface watering of plants is used in order to reduce non-uniformity and to achieve the optimal soil moisture. Under water balance conditions, but during short sharp droughts it is possible to use biopolymers, namely water absorbents retaining moisture in the soil and giving it to the plant during the lack of moisture. The changes in the soil microrelief form due to the regular differences in the compaction lead to increased moisture redistribution contrast between microhabitats. This creates the conditions for the geomorphogenic formation of potuscules and ariduscules. The correlation connections between the compaction, soil moisture, and the influence of the compaction on physical structure, bulk density, hardness and aeration of the soil have been considered. Their effect on plant growth has been studied. Such characteristics of plant root systems as tubers, their diameter, length and morphology are influenced by soil compaction. Thus, we have defined the problem of reducing the tubers crop dispersion and increasing the potatoes yield by decreasing the soil dispersion for fertility, moisture, compaction and biological activity within the selected area