Crop Growth Analysis of Autumn- and Spring-Sown Wheat–Pea Intercrops
Neugschwandtner R.W. Herz P. Böck A. Wagentristl H. Moitzi G. Klimek-Kopyra A. Bernas J. Lošák T. Ghorbani M. Amirahmadi E. Zholamanov K.K. Kaul H.-P.
February 2025Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
Agronomy
2025#15Issue 2
Intercropping of arable crops might provide yield benefits over monocrops. To assess the effect of sowing date and sowing ratio on biomass formation and competition over time, a two-year field experiment with wheat and pea plants was performed in Eastern Austria with two sowing times (autumn vs. spring) and with the following substitutive wheat–pea sowing ratios (%:%): 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, 12.5:87.5 and 0:100. For both crops, facultative cultivars were used. Compared to spring-sowing, autumn-sowing resulted in earlier development of plants, taller plants, faster soil coverage, a higher crop growth rate up to mid-May in the first year and early June in the second year, more above-ground dry matter production and in the second year also in a higher land equivalent ratio (LER) of intercrops. Sowing ratios affected absolute and relative growth rates of wheat and pea plants. Wheat, which was generally the stronger partner in the intercrops, out-competed pea plants in all intercrops in the first year due to a higher early crop growth rate and in the second year, when the monocrop biomass of wheat was lower than that of pea plants, even in the intercrops with lower wheat and higher pea share. All intercrops resulted in a yield advantage compared to the monocrops as indicated by the LER. At final harvest, this yield advantage was over both sowing times and all four intercropping ratios 14% in the first and 10% in the second year. The competitive abilities of individual crops in mixtures, as indicated by the partial LER, were not affected by the sowing time.
absolute growth rate , land equivalent ratio , Pisum sativum , relative growth rate , Triticum aestivum
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Institute of Agronomy, Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, 1180, Austria
Experimental Farm Groß-Enzersdorf, Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Schloßhofer Straße 31, Groß-Enzersdorf, 2301, Austria
Department of Agroecology and Plant Production, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Al. Mickiewicza 21, Krakow, 31-120, Poland
Department of Agroecosystems, Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1457, České Budějovice, 370 05, Czech Republic
Department of Environmentalistics and Natural Resources, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, Brno, 613 00, Czech Republic
Department of Agronomy, Breeding and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agrobiology, Kazakh National Agrarian Research University, Abai Avenue 8, Almaty, 050010, Kazakhstan
Institute of Agronomy
Experimental Farm Groß-Enzersdorf
Department of Agroecology and Plant Production
Department of Agroecosystems
Department of Environmentalistics and Natural Resources
Department of Agronomy
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