SOIL-TEMPERATURE, SOIL-WATER, AND NO-TILL CORN DEVELOPMENT FOLLOWING IN-ROW RESIDUE REMOVAL

in northern areas where corn (Zea mays L.) is grown, no-till plants de velop more slowly and, consequently, could be more susceptible to soil water limitations than plants under conventional tillage. This study was conducted to determine if removing in-row residues by pushing them into the inter-row can solve problems related to no-till corn develop ment in droughty soils. Residues were removed to produce a 30-cm band of bare soil along the corn row. This bare row no-tillage (BRNT) treat ment was compared with conventional tillage (C), regular no-tillage (N T), and bare no-tillage (BNT) for plant development, plant height, cro p yield, soil water content in the upper soil layers, and seed zone te mperature. The BRNT seed zone temperature was higher than that of NT a nd similar to that of C and BNT from emergence to the V6 stage. Accord ingly, BRNT plants reached the V6 stage 1.3 and 3.7 d later than C whi le NT reached the V6 stage 5.0 and 7.2 d later than C in 1990 and 1991 , respectively. In 1991, NT plants were further retarded by hot and dr y conditions despite the fact that interrow soil water was higher in t reatments with interrow residue cover. Height differences among treatm ents were related to developmental differences. Despite considerable c hanges in soil temperature, water, developmental rate, and height of p lants among treatments during the vegetative stage, reproductive yield was not affected by tillage and residue treatments.