Effect of peanut intercropping and mycorrhiza in increasing yield of sweet corn yield

Abstract

Many researchers reported that mycorrhizal symbiosis could significantly increase crop yield. The objective of this research was to examine the effects of mycorrhiza and intercropping with two peanut varieties on growth and yield of sweet corn. The experiment was conducted following paddy rice crop in Dasan Tebu, West Lombok, Indonesia, in the dry season 2018 and designed according to Split Plot design with four replications and two treatment factors, i.e. application of mycorrhiza-based biofertilizer as the main plots (M0 = without and M1=with mycorrhiza) and intercropping with peanut as the subplots (T0 = without intercropping, T1 = intercropping with peanut var. “Kelinci”, and T2 = intercropping with peanut var. “Bison”). The sweet corn cobs were harvested at the dough maturity stage. Results indicated that application of biofertilizer significantly increased stover dry weight, cob fresh weight, and number of green leaves per plant at harvest. Intercropping with peanuts also affected those observation variables and the height of ear position in the stem, and the “Bison” peanut variety was better than “Kelinci”. Although showing no significant interaction, intercropping with “Bison” did show higher benefits of biofertilization on both dry stover and fresh sweet corn cob weights than those with “Kelinci” variety.