Abstract
The intercropping is a production system that aims to provide increased yield with less environmental impact, due to greater efficiency in the use of natural resources and inputs involved in the production process. An experiment was carried out to evaluate the agronomic viability of kale and New Zealand spinach intercropping as a function of the spinach transplanting time. (0, 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84 and 98 days after transplanting of the kale). The total yield (TY) and yield per harvest (YH) of the kale in intercropping did not differ from those obtained in monoculture. The spinach TY was influenced by the transplanting time, the earlier the transplanting, the higher the TY. The spinach YH was not influenced by the transplanting time, but rather by the cultivation system. In intercropping, the spinach YH was 13.5% lower than in monoculture. The intercropping was agronomically feasible, since the land use efficiency index, which was not influenced by the transplanting time, had an average value of 1.71, indicating that the intercropping produced 71% more kale and spinach than the same area in monoculture. Competitiveness coefficient, aggressiveness and yield loss values showed that kale is the dominating species and spinach is the dominated.
Highlights
In the last decades, many researches have shown that intercropping of vegetables can be more efficient in the land and input use than monoculture (Bezerra Neto et al 2003, Cecílio Filho et al 2003, 2010, 2011, 2013, Rezende et al 2003, 2011), characteristics that make it a more environmentallyfriendly production system.the intercropping efficiency depends directly on the species involved and the managementThe factor planting time of the second species is one of the main factors of the intercropping management, since it influences the time and duration of species coexistence, affecting temporal and spatial complementarity (Cecílio Filho et al 2011)
Notwithstanding, there are many researches that studied the transplanting times of the second crop in relation to the first one, and found great influence on the agroeconomic feasibility of the intercropping
The yield per harvest and total yield of the kale were not influenced by the cultivation system
Summary
Many researches have shown that intercropping of vegetables can be more efficient in the land and input use than monoculture (Bezerra Neto et al 2003, Cecílio Filho et al 2003, 2010, 2011, 2013, Rezende et al 2003, 2011), characteristics that make it a more environmentallyfriendly production system.the intercropping efficiency depends directly on the species involved and the managementThe factor planting time of the second species is one of the main factors of the intercropping management, since it influences the time and duration of species coexistence, affecting temporal and spatial complementarity (Cecílio Filho et al 2011). Notwithstanding, there are many researches that studied the transplanting times of the second crop in relation to the first one, and found great influence on the agroeconomic feasibility of the intercropping Among these works, tomato and lettuce (Cecílio Filho et al 2011, 2013), cucumber and lettuce (Rezende et al 2010, 2011) and broccoli and lettuce (Oshe et al 2012) are highlighted, as they are examples of crops of quite contrasting size, as is the case of kale and New Zealand spinach. Similar results have been observed by Rezende et al (2010, 2011) and Oshe et al (2012) In these cases, the later transplanting of the lettuce established a coexistence period with tomato, cucumber and broccoli plants in a late way, when these were more developed and causing greater shading to the lettuce, impairing photosynthesis and mass accumulation
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