Effects of relay-planting several peanut rows on yield of two maize varieties at different row spacing

Abstract

Intercropping maize with peanut has been reported to change the availability of some nutrients in the rhizosphere of the intercrops which resulted in different concentration of some nutrients in the above-ground parts of the intercrops compared with its monocrop. This study aimed to examine the effects of relay-planting several rows of peanut between rows of maize at different spacing on yield components of two maize varieties, by conducting an SSP-designed experiment testing three treatment factors, namely additive intercropping (I) maize with peanut as the main plots, maize varieties (V) and maize row spacing (S). The results indicated that variety differences had the most significant effects on the observation variables, followed by row spacing, and intercropping, but there were three-way and two-way interaction effects on green leaf number at 9 weeks old, showing that the highest green leaf number was on hybrid maize plants of 75 cm row spacing intercropped with three rows of peanut. On grain yield per plant, there was no significant effect of row spacing, but grain yield per m2 was highest under the lowest (60 cm) row spacing and intercropping with three rows of peanut, i.e. 673.34 g/m2 on waxy maize (463.7 g/m2 in monocrop), and 736.04 g/m2 on hybrid maize (656.3 g/m2 in monocrop), which indicates the possibilities to reduce row spacing under additive intercropping with peanut.