Changes of Physical Soil Properties During the Growing Season 2014 – Influence of Applied Fertilizer in Crop Corn

Physical properties of soils are affected by many factors. These include the type of fertilizer used. An offer of fertilizers is currently extensive and new types are added, an example may be digestate, which is ranked among organic fertilizers according to Czech legislation. Changes in physical soil properties were monitored on a field trial, which were established on the place of Research grassland station Vatín (region Vysočina, the Czech Republic) in autumn 2013. The field trial comprised different variants of fertilization. Their effects were observed at different vegetation covers. In this paper, we focus on vegetation cover corn, fertilization variants: manure, mineral fertilizer (saltpetre ammonium with limestone) and digestate. The effect of fertilization was observed 3 times during the growing season 2014. It was in June, August and October. The results were obtained by the basic analysis of Kopecky rollers and it was from the depths of 0.05 m and 0.15 m (middle roller). The monitored soil properties were: bulk density, porosity, water retention capacity, maximum capillary water capacity and minimum air capacity. At all investigated physical soil properties there was a positive development during the growing season, with the exception of water retention capacity. The difference was found in the range of changes in various physical properties depending on the applied fertilizer.