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ASSESSING THE BIOLOGICAL YIELD WITH LAND EQUIVALENT RATIOS (LER) OF SIX VARIANTS WITH MIXED CULTURE OF CORN (ZEA MAIS) AND LEGUMES
Abstract
This paper presents the first year of the field experiment to evaluate the possibility of growing corn (Zea mays ssp. mays) in mixed culture (MC) with selected leguminous species. The main objective was to monitor the influence of MC agrotechnology on the yield of maize, individual leguminous crops and evaluation of biological yields through using the Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) for each variant of experiment. The selected legumes plant and corn were grown separately like sole crop (SC) or in MC (legumes and plant, seed rate in the ratio 1:1). The field experiment has been based on a field experimental station Vat?n (Czech-Moravian highland; Central part of the Czech Republic: 540 m a.s.l., slightly warm climatic region with a long-term average annual precipitation of 736 mm). Seven variants of SC (corn, broad bean, white lupin, white sweet clover, common vetch, chick pea, indian pea) and six of MC has been established. Each variant of the experiment was sown in block design 6 x 20 m. 75 thousand plants/ha was sown in sole culture. In the case of the cultivation of two crops (MC), 75 thousand plants/ha were used for each plant, i.e. a total of 150,000 plants per hectare. Yield of maize (solid biomass) was > 25 000 kg/ha in the case of MC and even in SC. Particular yield of leguminose reached yield from 1,500 to 5,000 kg/ha (in both systems of cultivation). The highest yield was noted in SC cultivation. When leguminous were planted in MC, there was recorded slight decrease in biomass production. Only in case of white lupin, the decrease was statistically significant as it reached > 15 %. On the other hand, maize cultivation, statistically inconclusive increase in yield (+ 4.2 %) was found by 1 200 kg/ha. Further, values LER were determined and the limit 1 was exceeded in all variants indicating effective using of locality conditions in MC. The highest LER value was noted in variant where corn + chick pea (1.87) were grown, and the least in variant corn + white lupin (1.61).
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