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- Title
Einfluss des Gemengeanbaus verschiedener Körnerleguminosen auf die photosynthetisch-aktive Strahlung (PAR) im Bestand und die Unkrautunterdrückung unter Bedingungen des ökologischen Landbaus.
- Authors
Rinke, Nadja; Böhm, Herwart
- Abstract
In organic farming, grain legumes are important elements. The grains are rich in protein, which can be used as self-produced feed stuff for animal nutrition. Grain legumes diversify crop rotations, break the life cycle of cereal pests, and are able to fix air nitrogen. The low yields and the slow juvenile development increase the risk for early weed infestation, which can be compensated by intercropping of grain legumes with spring cereals. A field trial was conducted at the experimental farm of Thünen Institute of Organic Farming in Trenthorst (Northern Germany) to compare the performance of sole and intercropped grain legumes. The trials were randomised in a block design with four replications. For the crops faba bean, pea, blue and white lupins, two cultivars of different properties were tested intercropped with spring wheat and sole cropped. During the growth period, the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) under crop canopy was measured at the height of the weeds at eight dates. Simultaneously, the global radiation was determined to obtain the ratio of PAR transmitted through the crop canopy. At ripening stage of the crops, a manual harvest of one square meter provided the data of weed biomass. The biomass was dried till weight balance and analysed for nitrogen content. The results point out a reduction of transmitted radiation through crop canopy for all intercropped legumes in the critical juvenile growth phase. The tillering of the cereal led to a fast shading of the soil and a strong decrease of radiation under crop canopy in the sole cropped cereal. Intercropped legumes benefited from the fast shading, especially faba bean at the growth phase of stem elongation and pea at flowering. Lupins have a pronounced rosette growth shading the soil effectively, so the effect of intercropping was marginal. Intercropping of white lupins has even a reverse effect at growth stage of pod filling. So, the lower number of white lupin plants per square meter in intercropped trials led to a lower shading in comparison to the sole cropped plots. The legumes showed no effect of cultivar on the shading performance of the crops, except for pea cultivars. The long-stemmed pea cv. Muza exhibited better shading than the short-stemmed cv. Astronaute at the growth stage of pod formation. Intercropping reduced weed biomass in comparison to the respective sole cropped legumes. For both lupins the weed biomass reduction was significant, so in trials of white lupins a reduction of 53.5% was obtained. In sole cropped legume plots, the adsorption of nitrogen in weed biomass was higher than in the respective intercropped plots. This leads to the assumption that the intercropped cereal reduces plant available nitrogen in soil which is no longer accessible for weeds. The effect was significant for the weed biomass in trials of faba bean, blue and white lupin, but not for pea. The year 2018 was characterised by extremely warm and dry weather conditions, influencing the results of the study. The evaluation of the following years will show whether these results will be confirmed.
- Subjects
ORGANIC farming; PHOTOSYNTHETICALLY active radiation (PAR); INTERCROPPING; RIPENING of crops; CROP canopies; CROP rotation; GLOBAL radiation; WEEDS; FAVA bean; LIFE cycles (Biology)
- Publication
Julius-Kühn-Archiv, 2022, Issue 468, p456
- ISSN
1868-9892
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5073/20220125-060136