Abstract
Advantages or disadvantages of intercropping system can estimate through expression of components of yield on the base of values of productive organs (spike, pod). The aim of this work was study of variation of spike index in cereals species and pods index in pea of spring intercropping. For investigation included spring species of small grains: wheat, triticale, oat and spring legume pea. The investigation was carried out in field condition in experiment with randomised block design of 5m2 plots, with 4 replications. Each species (cereals and pea) were sown sole and in intercrops wheat+pea, triticale+pea and oat+pea. At the maturity stage used 40 plants (10 plants/replication) for determining harvest index of spike in cereal species and index of pea pods on the base of analysis of spike mass and pod mass and seed mass spike-1 and seed mass pod-1 . Seed mass spike-1 of small grains species genotypes variate in ratio of 0.85 g (wheat+pea) and 1.59 g (oat intercrops) with average 1.19 g for all crops of cereals and variant of cultivation. The spike mass variate in range of 1.37 g (triticale intercrop) and 2.23 g (wheat intercrops) with average 1.72 g for all cereals and variant of cultivation. Harvest index of spike variate between 62.5% (triticale sole) and 89.2% (oat sole). The value of spike mass was the higher in wheat intercrops than in wheat sole, while for triticale and oat spike mass is lower in intercrops. In the same of analyzed small grain species, seed mass was the higher in sole crops than in mixture with pea. The spike index, only in intercrop triticale+pea (63.2%) was slightly higher than in single crop of triticale (62.5%). Pod mass and seed mass pod-1 of pea was the higher in pea intercrops than in pea sole. The highest pod mass was in intercrop pea+triticale (0.72 g) and the least in single crop of pea (0.45 g) with average 0.62 g for all crops. The highest seed mass pod-1 was the highest intercrop pea+triticale (0.56g) and the least in monocrop of pea (0.32 g) with average 0.46 g for all crops. Harvest index of pod variate in ratio 68.0% (pea single) and 77.% in pea/triticale intercrop. Pod index of pea in mixture with each small grains species genotypes was higher than in pea's monocrop. On the base of result we can conclude that intercropping cereals + pea, have positive effect on spike and pod characteristics which values were higher in majority of studied intercrops than in monocrops.
Highlights
In production practice of cereal and other annual crops are sown as monocultures with applied crop rotation to protect soil properties and suppressing weeds, reduce pest and pathogens (Smith et al, 2011)
It can be noted that the spike weight in monocrops of spring wheat, triticale and oat was higher than in the same small grain species grown in the mixture with pea
The values of weight of spike and seed mass spike-1 in the same spring cereal species were higher in monocrops than in intercrops
Summary
In production practice of cereal and other annual crops are sown as monocultures with applied crop rotation to protect soil properties (fertility of soil, nutrients) and suppressing weeds, reduce pest and pathogens (Smith et al, 2011). Production of forage in system of growing cereal-legume intercrops in recent time widely accepted from the reason of efficient utilization of arable land areas, improving soil fertility, increasing biodiversity, improving quality of crops, reducing weeds and pests (Gill and Omokanye, 2018; Golijan and Marković, 2018). Plant interaction in intercropping system contribute to improving of soil quality, increasing cycling of nutrient, conservation of soil moisture and crop production (Chu et al, 2017; Davis et al, 2015; Smith et al, 2014). Crop species in mixture contribute to increase biodiversity in soil and in field crops (agroecosystem) and can express different time of developing stage to the maturity time (BCRC, 2016; Veliĉković et al, 2016)
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