Green and sweet corn grown under different cover crops and phases of the no-tillage system

Diemisson O Nunes,Hamilton C De O Charlo,José Luiz R Torres,Antônio C Barreto,Arcângelo Loss,João H De S Favaro

doi:10.1590/1807-1929/agriambi.v26n3p173-179

Abstract

ABSTRACT Special corn is cultivated all year conventionally round; however, its productivity increases when grown under a no-tillage system (NTS). This study aimed to evaluate the agronomic performance of sweet and green corn cultivated under residues of different cover crops and the NTS implantation stages. Two experiments were carried out in the randomized block design, with four replications, in each of the three areas. The experiments consisted of evaluating the sweet and green corn, simultaneously, in three areas at different stages of development of NTS: initial (1 year), transition (7 years), and consolidation (19 years) with six types of cover crops: Signal grass (SG), Pearl millet (PM), Sunn hemp (SH), a mixture of SG + SH, SG + PM, and PM + SH. The dry matter (DM) production of the cover crops, the productivity of husked and unhusked ears, straw, and grain yield were evaluated. The SH had the highest dry mass production among the studied cover crops in all phases of the NTS. The phase of the NTS did not influence the productivity of ears with or without husk in green corn. The cultivation of sweet corn in transition and consolidation areas of the NTS showed better yields when compared to the initial phase of the system.

Highlights

Material and MethodsBrazil occupies the second position in corn production (Zea mays L.), in the world scenario, cultivated for the production of dry grains (CONAB, 2020)
The sunn hemp (SH) was the cover crop that presented the highest dry mass (DM) production among the species studied at the three areas evaluated, which are at different stages of implementation of the no-tillage system (NTS)
This Sunn hemp (SH) performance may be related to its pivoting root system, which assists in soil decompression, penetrating deeper layers in search of water and nutrients (Bertollo et al, 2021), its rapid growth, and the ability to establish a symbiosis with bacteria of the genus Rhizobium sp. and perform biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), which the plant can use during formation process (Loss et al, 2014)

Summary

Introduction

Brazil occupies the second position in corn production (Zea mays L.), in the world scenario, cultivated for the production of dry grains (CONAB, 2020). This corn, considered common, gave rise to special types of corn, all those grown for other purposes (Pereira Filho et al, 2018). There is no official record for green corn in the country; it is known that in 2018, 9.1 million tons were produced in the world, with an average yield of 8.1 Mg ha-1 (Silva et al, 2021) These special corns are cultivated intensively and conventionally (Miranda et al, 2020), causing degradation of soil attributes (Silva et al, 2020). When they are cultivated under a no-tillage system (NTS), the sustainability of production increases (Oliveira et al, 2017), as the system provides the improvement of physical (Torres et al, 2019), chemical (Soratto et al, 2012), and biological properties of soils (Ferreira et al, 2019), soil attributes, which can increase crop yield (Pedrotti et al, 2015)

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Results

Conclusion