Marcia La Corbiniere and Darryl Warncke. Michigan State University, A574 PSS Building, East Lansing, MI 48824
An experiment was conducted to assess the impact of gypsum alone, and in combination with various soil amendments on sweet corn quality and yield, among other parameters. The treatment design involved three factors, gypsum application with two levels (applied or not applied), compost application with two levels (applied or not applied), and cover crops with 6 levels (five covers, including no cover). The statistical model included the three studied factors and all the interactions among them as fixed effects, and replication (blocks) as a random effect. Corn was successfully grown and harvested in 2006 and 2007. Results have shown a significant effect of compost and interaction between gypsum and compost on Ca concentrations in corn, but no significant effect of gypsum; no treatment effect has been observed for Mg concentration in corn ear. Compost, cover crops and cover-compost interaction had significant effect on corn plant biomass. For the compost, cover and compost-cover interaction, the greatest effect was found in response to oilseed radish, followed by mustard. No significant effect on biomass has been observed with gypsum application. Corn yield was significantly higher following oriental mustard, oilseed radish, and red clover, than cereal rye (and wheat). No significant difference was observed between cereal rye (and wheat), and no-cover plots. There was no significant effect of compost or gypsum application on marketable ears.