Currently, when cultivating Humulus lupulus, there is no systematic farming reducing soil erosion in the Czech Republic. As a result, annual irreversible soil and organic matter losses due to intensive rains occur on soils of hop gardens threatened by erosion. One of the possibilities how to reduce water erosion in hop gardens and thereby to decrease the amount of washed away organic matter is using the conservation effect of suitably selected catch crops in inter-rows. Two catch crops were selected to test: Phacelia tanacetifolia and a grass-legume mixture. Organic matter in soil is a key factor to maintain the stable soil environment and our results show that the amount of washed away organic matter was reduced by more than half compared to conventional farming (60% – naturally moist soil, 54.5% – soil already saturated). The research was conducted between the years 2016 and 2017 close to the village of Solopysky. Soil loss was investigated using a rainfall simulator from which the organic matter washing away was consequently determined. The rainfall simulator is a device enabling to measure not only the soil loss due to water erosion but also the volume of surface runoff, infiltration etc. From the outcomes of measurements carried out with rainfall simulator it is apparent that these technologies have a significant soil conservation potential in hop gardens.

Maize (Zea mays L.) belongs among the most important agriculture crops all over the world. The conventional way of cultivating maize with wide row spacing does not have a soil conservation effect and significantly contributes to water erosion and surface run-off. In our research, we tested the soil conservation technology (strip-till into grass cover) which took place in 2016 and 2017 in the location of Central Bohemia. The impact of a strip-till system of maize into grass cover on reducing the soil loss due to erosion was verified on the area of 21 m² using a rainfall simulator. During the research, 70 measurements were realised. The strip-till was compared to fallow land, conventional cultivation and no-till methods. Profound differences were found in the soil loss between the treatments. There was a decrease in the soil loss of about 98% in the strip-till compared to the conventional cultivation. Moreover, the surface run-off was reduced by 79%. The ANCOVA (analysis of covariance) models of the log-transformed soil loss on the surface run-off and treatment were highly significant (P < 10^–15). The measurement results clearly demonstrate the positive effect of the strip-till into the grass on the surface run-off and soil loss. This positive soil conservation effect was observed even in springtime, as well as the rest of the season. Using a grass cover for establishing the maize significantly contributes to the soil conservation on the land threatened by erosion and offers farmers a suitable way of farming when growing maize. Strip-tilling is a technology that has great potential in sustainable farming.

The aim of the article was to verify the curve number (CN) values given in the National Engineering Handbook (NEH) methodology, whether they really correspond to all wide-row crops. The tested crops were maize, hops and potatoes grown using conventional and soil conservation technologies. All these crops are classified as wide-row crops, but they are very different in terms of the cultivation process. The basis for the calculation of our CN values were field measurements carried out using a rainfall simulator within the time span from 2014 to 2020 on the soil corresponding to hydrological group B in two repetitions: naturally dry soil corresponding to an ARC II curve and saturated soil corresponding to an ARC III curve. The results show that our calculated CN values for the conventional cultivation of wide-row crops are, in principle, the same as the CN values given in the NEH methodology. On the contrary, a certain difference was recorded in the soil conservation technologies with plant residues on the surface, in the case of naturally dry soil. Lower CN values are clearly seen in the technologies of no-till maize, strip-till maize and hops with catch crops, which was confirmed by the statistical tests, probably due to the interception and surface roughness.

Soil degradation and water erosion are undoubtedly serious global problems. Moreover, excessive surface runoff and the lack of water in landscape are problems encountered not only in the Czech agricultural land. This condition is unsustainable in the long-term and it is necessary to find, verify and quantify suitable agricultural methods for reducing soil degradation. In this study, we tested two soil conservation technologies for sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) cultivation. Our results show that erosion was reduced by more than 78% (no-till) and 89% (no-till: narrow row) in rainfall simulation on naturally moist soil compared to conventional cultivation. Also, the use of conservation technologies reduced surface runoff (52% no-till, 68% no-till: narrow row). Sorghum has similar agronomic requirements as maize but it has the advantage of a good dryness tolerance and a high water use efficiency. The two-year research (2014, 2017) took place in the Central Bohemian Region. Soil degradation was verified using a rainfall simulator. The results have shown that both no-till technologies have a significant (P < 0.05) soil conservation effect.

Soil degradation caused by water erosion in sloping hop gardens is definitely a serious issue because the space in inter-rows is without plant residues for most of the year in traditional cultivation. Cover crops in inter-rows of hop gardens and their efficiency in soil conservation are assessed in this article. There is only little research available in this area, and our data bring unique information on water erosion in hop gardens. Technologies with different types of cover crops were always compared with the conventional cultivation. The research was conducted within the years 2016–2020. A field rainfall simulator was used to determine the soil conservation effectiveness of selected technologies. The simulated rainfall was performed in two stages of cover crops growth with the main aim to measure the overall soil loss. The outcomes from the measurements confirmed that cover crops in inter-rows of hop gardens protect the soil surface from falling raindrops and significantly (P-value &lt; 0.05) reduce soil loss. It can be concluded that this technology had a soil conservation effect already one month after sowing, and it is a basis for sustainable agricultural management on sloping hop gardens.