Background
We established a new trial site near Tempy in the Central Mallee region. We aim to continue investigating the potential for deep ripping to increase the production of pulse crops grown on deep Mallee sandy soils.
Our research over the previous two seasons (2019-2020) have shown that deep ripping led to substantial yield increases for most pulse crops grown on deep sands where pulse productivity is normally constrained.
This year’s trials (2021) will look to build on our existing findings by quantifying yield responses of chickpea, lentil, faba bean and field pea over a greater range of seasons.
Method
Four separate trials will be conducted at the site with one trial for each of the following crops:
Each trial containing four leading commercial varieties or breeding lines (Table 1)
Each variety has been sown into plots that have either no ripping or deep ripped prior to sowing.
All deep ripping treatments were ripped to target depth of 50cm with Tilco A66 tines spaced at 56 cm apart.
