Vegetable growers in the Southeast US have successfully used cultivation to grow pumpkins. Many growers, due to the lack of surface applied herbicides, no-till planting equipment, and knowledge of conservation tillage methods for vegetables, have not pursued no-till pumpkin production in this region. All of these production aides are now present for successful no-till plantings. Reasons to use no-till technology for pumpkins include soil moisture conservation, cleaner fruit and similar yields as conventional tillage, and long-term improvements of soil chemical, microbial, and physical properties of the soil. The objectives of the two experiments were to evaluate the influence of surface residue type and amount on yield and quality of no-till pumpkins, and to establish planting date and nitrogen (N) rate recommendations. Results suggest that a minimum amount of residue is required for good no-till pumpkin yields, but increasing residues beyond 5600-6720 kg ha-1 will not affect pumpkin yield. Although this range will vary with location, weather conditions, and soil type, a vegetable grower should expect to successfully grow no-till pumpkins at these residue rates. Planting date and N rate greatly influenced no-till pumpkin yields. Planting dates that were earlier than traditional planting dates increased yields at one location where cooler weather conditions persist, but had minimal affect at a second warmer mountain region location. The highest rate of 120 kg Nha-1 produced the greatest yields, suggesting that perhaps a greater N rate may have continued to increase yield.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-07092004-120503 |
| Date | 09 July 2004 |
| Creators | Harrelson, Enoch Ryan |
| Contributors | Greg D. Hoyt, David Monks, John Havlin |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-07092004-120503/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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