The phrase "crop phase" is grammatically correct and can be used in written English to refer to a specific stage or period in the growth and production of crops.
Here is an example: "The crop phase of the corn harvest typically begins in late summer and lasts for about two months before the plants are ready to be harvested."
Earthworm numbers in individual crop phases within a cropping system were too variable from year-to-year to recommend using a single phase to characterize a whole cropping system.
However for future work and indices associated with phenological crop phases, we also simulated daily precipitation patterns by downscaling the monthly precipitation to daily precipitation while maintaining simulated rainfall footprints being realistically irregular with non-uniform volume throughout the footprint.
The primary objectives of this work were to determine if the abundance of endogeic or anecic earthworms varied among cropping systems or crop phases within a cropping system and were there specific management practices that impacted endogeic or anecic earthworm numbers.
Conversely, retaining trees in agroecosystems may maintain earthworm populations during the cropping phase.
Cassava is usually the last crop before local farmers leave plots to natural fallow until soil fertility is recovered and a new cropping phase can be initiated.
The impact of fallow management on soil chemical, physical and biological parameters related to residual soil fertility during the cropping phase was evaluated.
After a short cropping phase, the land is abandoned to fallow, then the cycle is repeated.
However, it is generally difficult to specify when the cropping phase ends and the fallow begins as harvesting of plantains and tubers might continue after fallow vegetation has become established (Mutsaers et al. 1981).
For the 20-year fallow, understory vegetation biomass was sampled at the end of the cropping phase and the % biomass contribution of tree seedlings was calculated (Hauser and Mekoa 2009).
