| Abstract: | Flexibility in crop rotation planning allows canola and pea producers to adapt to changing management practices and marketing opportunities. Current recommendations in western Canada are to follow a 1 in 4-yr rotation for canola or pea on a particular field, but producers are interested in increasing frequency of these crops. The objective of this study was to determine the impacts of frequency of broad-leaf crops canola and pea and fungicide application in various crop rotations on accumulation and distribution of nitrate nitrogen (N) and extractable phosphorus (P) in the soil profile after 8 yr on a Dark Brown Chernozem (Typic Boroll) loam at Scott, Saskatchewan. The field experiment (from 1998 and 2005) contained monoculture canola and monoculture pea compared with rotations that contained these crops every 2, 3, and 4 yr with wheat and/or flax. Two cultivars of canola were included, an herbicide-tolerant and blackleg-resistant hybrid, and a conventional (not herbicide tolerant) open-pollinated, blackleg-susceptible (OP) cultivar. Subplots were fungicide treatments that attempted to control both blackleg and sclerotinia stem rot in canola and mycosphaerella blight in pea. Residual soil nitrate N in most layers and extractable P in many layers were significantly affected by crop rotation or rotation length, with the greatest amounts after monocultures. Fungicide application resulted in decreased amount of residual soil nitrate N, but it had no effect on soil extractable P. Crop phase (i.e., individual crops that make up the rotation) had a significant effect on soil nitrate N in many crop rotations; for example, residual soil nitrate N tended to be greatest after pea or OP canola and also after flax in the 4-yr rotation with flax. Crop phase had no effect on soil extractable P in any crop rotation. The lower amounts of residual soil nitrate N were usually associated with greater cumulative seed yields, and more so with greater cumulative N removal in seed in various crop rotations and phases within rotations. In conclusion, the findings suggest that accumulation of residual nutrients in soil, especially nitrate N, can be minimized by extending crop rotations, using high-yielding disease-resistant canola cultivars, and applying fungicides in years with weather conditions conducive to diseases. |
