• Authors:
    • Wu, Z.
    • Yu, T.
    • Song, F.
    • Zhuoremu, T.
    • Shi, Y.
    • Hadier, Y.
  • Source: Xinjiang Agricultural Sciences
  • Volume: 47
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Objective: The microclimatic factors in different jujube-wheat intercropping densities (3 m * 4 m, 2 m * 6 m) and jujube-cotton intercropping densities (3 m * 4 m, 2 m * 6 m) were studied in the arid area of the Tarim basin, in order to improve theory of Jujube-crops intercropping, optimize intercropping model, and provide theoretic basis for crop selection. Method: Auto-meteorology Vantage Pro2 and portable meteorological instrument KS4000 were used to observe the microclimatic factors, such as light intensity, air temperature and humidity, wind speed and direction. The ground temperature was tested by WQG-15 thermomicro-climatemeter at same time. Result: The climatic factors changed to some extent with different jujube-crops intercropping systems. Within the same intercropping system, the micro-climate varied in different lines, especially for light intensity. Among the different intercropping system, the order of light intensity was 3*4 (m) jujube-wheat intercropping
  • Authors:
    • Kripa, S.
    • Singh, R.
  • Source: Annals of Plant Protection Sciences
  • Volume: 18
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Field studies were conducted in Uttar Pradesh, India, during the 2007/08 and 2008/09 rabi seasons, to determine the effect of intercropping on the mustard aphid ( Lipaphis erysimi) incidence. Indian mustard was intercropped with wheat, barley, pea, chickpea, lentil, linseed and radish, with a sole crop of Indian mustard as the control. The aphid population was determined and yield was recorded at harvest. Results showed that mustard intercropped with barley registered minimum mean aphid population index (2.35) and maximum mean yield of mustard (2.67 q/ha), followed by mustard + wheat, having mean aphid index of 2.53 q/ha and 2.67 q/ha, respectively. Mustard intercropped with linseed and chickpea were also better than the control in checking the incidence of mustard aphid, having 2.88 and 3.09 mean aphid indexes, respectively. However, the mustard intercropped with pea, lentil and radish were at par with the control.
  • Authors:
    • Oad, S.
    • Abro, B.
    • Sohu, I.
  • Source: Pakistan Sugar Journal
  • Volume: 25
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: The study on intercropping of autumn planted sugarcane with onion, wheat, Lentil, Mustard and Safflower was carried out at the experimental Field of Sugarcane Research Station, QAARI Larkana during the year 2005-2006. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block with four replications with ultimate plot size of 8*8 m (64 m 2). The results obtained were analysed and reported briefly. The results were statistically non-significant for germination %age, number of tiller per stool and plant height. Maximum germination (59.98%) was recorded when sugarcane was planted sole followed by sugarcane+Lentil intercropping i.e. (58.00%). The same trend was noted for number of tillers stool -1, cane girth and internodes/cane. The cane yield ha -1 of sugarcane was maximum (120.97 m.t ha -1), when sugarcane planted alone, whereas all the intercrops reduced cane yield significantly. Smoothly and competitive effect was observed for all intercrops when sown with sugarcane.
  • Authors:
    • Mitchell, J. P.
    • Summers, C. G.
    • Stapleton, J. J.
    • Prather, T. S.
  • Source: PHYTOPARASITICA
  • Volume: 38
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Experiments were conducted in laboratory bioreactors and in field plots to test effects of certain cultivated members of the grass family (Poaceae=Gramineae), including wheat ( Triticum aestivum cv. Yolo), barley ( Hordeum vulgare cv. UC337), oats ( Avena sativa cv. Montezuma), triticale ( X Triticosecale), and a sorghum-sudangrass hybrid ( Sorghum bicolor * S. sudanense="sudex", cv. Green Grazer V) for soil disinfestation potential. Soilborne pest organisms tested for effects on survival and activity included the phytopathogens Sclerotium rolfsii, Pythium ultimum and Meloidogyne incognita, and a variety of weed taxa. Following soil amendment, bioreactors were incubated for 7 days at ambient (23°C) or elevated, but sublethal (38°C day/27°C night), soil heating regimens. Addition of each of the poaceous amendments to soil at 23°C resulted in inconsistently reduced tomato root galling (49-97%) by M. incognita, or reduced recovery of S. rolfsii and P. ultimum (0-100%) fungi in soil, after 7 days' incubation ( P≤0.05). When the organisms were exposed to the poaceous soil amendments at the 38°/27° temperature regimen, nematode galling and recovery of active fungi were consistently and significantly reduced by 98-100%. These results demonstrated feasibility of soil disinfestation ("biofumigation") by activity of poaceous amendments, further aided by combining plant residues with soil heating (e.g. solarization). Results from three field experiments with sudex cover crops, conducted throughout the growing season, demonstrated biocidal activity on a range of weedy plants, including Amaranthus retroflexus, Calandrinia ciliata, Cerastium arvense, Digitaria sanguinalis, Echinochloa crus-galli and Poa annua. Both shoots and roots of sudex provided allelopathic weed biomass reductions of 35-100%, and for at least 106 days after shredding. Deleterious activity of shredded residues incorporated in soil was less persistent. These properties in poaceous crops can be useful for soil disinfestation; however, harmful phytotoxicity to subsequent crops may also result. In order to take full advantage of these low-input measures for controlling soilborne diseases and pests, further understanding of their properties must be gained, and user guidelines developed.
  • Authors:
    • Guiducci, M.
    • Tosti, G.
  • Source: European Journal of Agronomy
  • Volume: 33
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Intercropping cereals and grain legumes is a common practice because of the advantages in N use, in pest and volunteer plant smothering, but when the grains need to be separated, there are several technical difficulties. These problems may be overcome by adopting a particular form of intercropping (termed "temporary intercropping") where the coexistence of the crops is limited to a portion of their life cycles. In a cereal-legume temporary row-intercropping, the legume component is ploughed into the soil before cereal shooting; thus the legume is used with a mere fertility purpose in order to improve N availability for the cereal component. The presence of such a positive effect, already confirmed in permanent intercropping, needs to be verified in temporary intercropping systems. In an organic farming system, a field experiment was carried out in two consecutive years (2005 and 2006) to evaluate the technical feasibility of a temporary intercropping between three varieties of durum wheat ( Triticum durum Desf.) and faba bean ( Vicia faba L. var. minor Beck.) and to test the effects on interspecific competition for light, N availability, cereal grain yield and quality. The species were temporarily intercropped following an additive design, and there was no fertilisation or crop protection. The N incorporated into the soil by the faba bean biomass was rather stable across years. The competitive effect of the legume reduced the biomass accumulation of the intercropped wheat, but the cereal N status was considerably improved. After the faba bean incorporation into the soil, the marked asymmetry of the temporary intercropped wheat (i.e. large inter-row space coupled with high plant density in the row) affected the radiation balance, nevertheless the yield was positively affected and the wheat grain protein content was increased to an excellent (from 12.0 to 13.9% in 2005) or a good (from 10.2 to 11.5% in 2006) level. Temporary intercropping was shown to be excellent method to improve the quality of organic durum wheat in the Mediterranean environmental conditions.
  • Authors:
    • Meena, B.
    • Swaminathan, S.
    • Verma, T.
  • Source: Annals of Plant Protection Sciences
  • Volume: 18
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Field studies were conducted in India, during the 1999/2000 and 2000/01 rabi seasons, to detemine the impact of intercrops on the incidence of Lipaphis erysimi on Indian mustard. The treatments comprised Indian mustard+wheat (2:3; 3 rows of intercrop and 2 rows of Indian mustard), Indian mustard+barley (2:3), Indian mustard+chickpeas (2:2) and Indian mustard. Aphid populations were recorded from 5 randomly selected plants from each plot at weekly intervals from initial appearance to harvest. Visual counts of aphids were made to record the populations on wheat, barley and chickpeas. Higher aphid numbers were recorded on Indian mustard and Indian mustard+chickpea intercrop. The average number of aphids was higher during the 1999/2000 season and lower during the 2000/01 season. The peak population was observed during the second and fourth weeks of February. The Indian mustard+chickpea intercrop had significantly higher aphid populations (320.35), followed by Indian mustard (234.71) during the 1999/2000 season possibly due to the plant height and the extra nitrogen made available by chickpeas resulting in better succulence of Indian mustard. The range of aphid populations was 153.60-320.35/5 plants during the 1999/2000 season and 118.88-125.81/5 plants during the 2000/01 season.
  • Authors:
    • Somendra, N.
    • Anand, K.
    • Tripathi, A.
  • Source: Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences
  • Volume: 80
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: A field experiment was carried out during winter ( rabi) seasons of 2003-04 and 2004-05 at Kanpur to find out the production potential and economic viability of winter maize ( Zea mays L.) intercropped with potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.), Indian mustard [ Brassica juncea (L.) Czernj. & Cosson], toria ( Brassica campestris var. toria), pea ( Pisum sativum L. sensulato), linseed ( Linum usitatissimum L.) and wheat ( Triticum aestivum L. emend. Fiori & Paol.) for central plain zone of Uttar Pradesh. Values of land equivalent ratio (LER) and area-time equivalent ratio (ATER) with all the intercropping systems were greater indicating advantage in yield, land-use efficiency and monetary return/unit time and space over the respective monocultures. All the intercrops with maize recorded significantly higher maize-equivalent yield than the sole crop. Intercropping of maize with potato was more advantageous than the other intercrops. Maize+potato appeared to be biologically the most efficient and economically viable system giving the highest maize grain yield (6 091 kg/ha), maize-equivalent yield (13 792 kg/ha), production efficiency (276.1%), land equivalent ratio (2.14), area-time equivalent ratio (1.91), monetary advantage (Rs 39 017) and net realization (Rs 32 369/ha), followed by maize+pea. Indian mustard, toria and wheat were found non-compatible with winter maize.
  • Authors:
    • Haar, M.
    • Lindquist, J.
    • Wortman, S.
    • Francis, C.
  • Source: Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems
  • Volume: 25
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: While weed management is consistently a top priority among farmers, there is also growing concern for the conservation of biodiversity. Maintaining diverse weed communities below bioeconomic thresholds may provide ecosystem services for the crop and the surrounding ecosystem. This study was conducted to determine if weed diversity, density and biomass differ within and among organic and conventional crop rotations. In 2007 and 2008, we sampled weed communities in four long-term crop rotations near Mead, Nebraska using seedbank analyses (elutriation and greenhouse emergence) and above-ground biomass sampling. Two conventional crop rotations consisted of a corn ( Zea mays) or sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor)-soybean ( Glycine max)-sorghum or corn-soybean sequence and a diversified corn or sorghum-sorghum or corn-soybean-wheat ( Triticum aestivum) sequence. Two organic rotations consisted of an animal manure-based soybean-corn or sorghum-soybean-wheat sequence and a green manure-based alfalfa ( Medicago sativa)-alfalfa-corn or sorghum-wheat sequence. Species diversity of the weed seedbank and the above-ground weed community, as determined by the Shannon diversity index, were greatest in the organic green manure rotation. Averaged across all sampling methods and years, the weed diversity index of the organic green manure rotation was 1.07, followed by the organic animal manure (0.78), diversified conventional (0.76) and conventional (0.66) rotations. The broadleaf weed seedbank density in the tillage layer of the organic animal manure rotation was 1.4*, 3.1* and 5.1* greater than the organic green manure, diversified conventional and conventional rotations, respectively. The grass weed seedbank density in the tillage layer of the organic green manure rotation was 2.0*, 6.1* and 6.4* greater than the organic animal manure, diversified conventional and conventional rotations, respectively. The above-ground weed biomass was generally greatest in the organic rotations. The broadleaf weed biomass in sorghum and wheat did not differ between organic and conventional rotations (CRs), but grass weed biomass was greater in organic compared to CRs for all crops. The above-ground weed biomass did not differ within CRs, and within organic rotations the grass weed biomass was generally greatest in the organic green manure rotation. The weed seedbank and above-ground weed communities that have accumulated in these rotations throughout the experiment suggest a need for greater management in long-term organic rotations that primarily include annual crops. However, results suggest that including a perennial forage crop in organic rotations may reduce broadleaf weed seedbank populations and increase weed diversity.
  • Authors:
    • Zekaite, V.
  • Source: Vagos
  • Issue: 88
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Field experiments, designed to study weed incidence in Poaceae and Fabaceae monocrops and their mixtures as influenced by an organic cropping system, were carried out during 2007-2009 at the Experimental station of the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forest in Perloja on a Hapli-Albic Luvisol. Short-lived weeds prevailed in the crops. They accounted for 93-95% of the total weeds. The highest counts of weeds were recorded at the beginning of the growing season when the conditions for their emergence were the most conducive ones. In 2007 and 2009 the weather conditions during cereal tillering stage were wet and warm, which created optimal conditions for weed emergence and the weed count per m -2 was 257-264. In the third ten-day period of April 2008, re-current night frosts inhibited cereal and weed emergence, which resulted in 43.6-51.7% lower emergence. With increasing crop competitive power (milk maturity stage), weed emergence tended to decline and was by 17.9-9.8% lower compared with the weed count at tillering stage. Weed air dry weight decreased proportionally, however, only at crop hard maturity stage, with the reduction in crop competitive power, weed air dry weight increased by 31.6%. Due to the weather conditions, weed air dry weight in the wet year 2007 was by 35-55% higher than that in 2008 and 2009. Lupines, oats and wheat and its mixture with peas performed best in suppressing weeds. A strong linear correlation was established between weed number and precipitation and weigh (r=0.901, r=0.758); between plant density and precipitation amount (r=0.745).
  • Authors:
    • Wang, L.
    • Anjum, S.
    • Xue, L.
    • Zhang, Y,
    • Hu, X,
    • Wang, G.
    • Zou, C.
  • Source: Zhongguo Shengtai Nongye Xuebao / Chinese Journal of Eco-Agriculture
  • Volume: 18
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Under the "wheat/maize/sweet potato" tri-crop intercropping system in the southwest China, we researched into the effects of different straw mulching treatments on root morphology, physiological characteristics of transplanted maize at seedling stage. Taking local traditional farming (T) as CK, the other two treatments were straw mulching (TS) and straw mulching plus decomposition catalysts (TSD). The entire experiment lasted for two years. Results show that straw mulching moderately increases root length and root surface area, while significantly increasing root length within 1.0-2.5 mm diameter compared with T treatment. However, there is no significant difference between TSD and TS treatments. Significantly increases in maize seedling root vigor by respectively 19.12%, 27.46%, in root-shoot ratio by 36.72%, 37.50%, and in root biomass by 62.53%, 69.42% are noted under TS and TSD treatments for 2008. Compared with T, the above indicators increase respectively by 17.86% and 25.83%, 31.54% and 33.08%, 65.69% and 77.37% for 2009. Meanwhile, straw mulching enhances soil moisture and nutrient supply. Straw mulching conservation tillage enhances root development and other physiological characteristics under maize intercropping system at seedling stage by changing farmland environment. Straw mulching with decomposition catalysts even performs better.