Soil nitrogen dynamics after stone and clod windrowing (soil separation technique) in potato fields

We compared the effect of this new technique and of traditional seed bed preparation on soil nitrogen dynamics. The soil in this trial tended to stay in clods after seed bed preparation with a rotary harrow (traditional method). With the stone and clod windrowing technique, both clods and stones were separated from the fine soil before planting and laid in bands between the rows. Suction cups were used as soil water samplers to determine the nitrate and ammonium content in the soil water. Nitrogen mineralization was similar with the two cultivation methods. The stone and clod windrowing technique increased the potato yield by 11 %.