Effect of population density of lettuce intercropped with rocket on productivity and land-use efficiency

The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the spacing of lettuce rows on the production of a lettuce-rocket intercropping system over two growing seasons (11 August to 25 September 2011 and 12 January to 24 February 2012) in Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil. We evaluated 11 treatmen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2018-04, Vol.13 (4), p.e0194756-e0194756
Main Authors: Nascimento, Camila Seno, Cecílio Filho, Arthur Bernardes, Mendoza-Cortez, Juan Waldir, Nascimento, Carolina Seno, Bezerra Neto, Francisco, Grangeiro, Leilson Costa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural practices
Agriculture
Biology and Life Sciences
Biomass
Brazil
Competition
Crop Production
Crops
Crops, Agricultural
Efficiency
Environmental aspects
Environmental impact
Growing season
Intercropping
Lactuca - growth & development
Land use
Leaves
Lettuce
Plant Leaves - growth & development
Plant sciences
Plants
Population density
Row spacing
Seasons
Sole cropping
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Summary:The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the spacing of lettuce rows on the production of a lettuce-rocket intercropping system over two growing seasons (11 August to 25 September 2011 and 12 January to 24 February 2012) in Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil. We evaluated 11 treatments in each season: lettuce-rocket intercrops with five row spacings for the lettuce (0.20, 0.25, 0.30, 0.35 and 0.40 m) and the rocket planted midway between the lettuce rows, sole crops of lettuce at the same five row spacings and a sole crop of rocket. Fresh and dry masses of the lettuce and rocket and number of lettuce leaves per plant were highest with a lettuce row spacing of 0.40 m, but the productivities of the lettuce and rocket were higher with a lettuce row spacing of 0.20 m. The productivities and fresh and dry weights of the lettuce and rocket and the number of lettuce leaves per plant were highest in the sole crops, but the fresh and dry weights of the rocket were higher with intercropping. The land equivalent ratios were >1.0 in both seasons in all intercrops and were highest for the densest crop (1.41). Intercropping was therefore 41% more efficient than sole cropping for the production of lettuce and rocket.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0194756