Tillage Impact On Water Use and Yield of Three Sweet Corn Cultivars

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how tillage practices influenced water use (WU) and yield of sweet corn.  The tillage and cultivar treatments were applied in a factorial experiment using randomized complete block design with three replications.  Cultivars comprised of Silver King (C1), Avalon (C2), Argent (C3) while tillage treatments consisted of no-till (NT) and strip-till (ST).   Sweet corn was planted in spring 2008. Sweet corn ears were harvested seventy-six days after planting. Four bi-weekly (13 June =vegetative, 27 June =early tasseling, 11 July =silking, and 23 July=mature ear) volumetric soil water percentages were measured at a depth of 0-45 cm.  Maximum marketable sweet corn fresh yield (19.5 Mg/ha) was produced by ST-C2 while minimum yield (15.7 Mg/ha) was produced by NT-C3.  Among the three sweet corn cultivars over all dates, WU was highest for C1 grown in ST and lowest for NT-C3.  Results indicated that C2 (cv. Avalon) in strip-till had highest yield and third highest water use while C3 (cv. Argent) in no-till was lowest yielding with lowest WU.