Advances as low soil tillage and cover crops are important to introduce more sustainability on vegetable production. The objective of this study was to evaluate Pearl millet desiccation time for no-tillage crisphead lettuce, silver and black plastic mulching in the summer, with or without beds. The experiment was arranged in a randomized block design with four replications in a split-plot scheme. The main plot was constituted by the soil management (presence or absence of beds) and the subplots were constituted by the different covers (millet dried at 28, 42, 56 and 70 days after emergence, silver and black plastic mulching, unmulched soil and spontaneous vegetation dried at 70 DAE), in two successive cultivations. The results showed that the excess of straw provided by millet dried later promotes drastic reduction in lettuce stand, reflecting in low productivity. However, when dried at 42 DAE (10 t/ha of straw) it promotes good ground cover and productivity, as well as benefits of erosion control and reducing the cost with mechanization in the second cycle. In the first cultivation, the high temperatures in the plastic mulching promoted reduction of lettuce final stand, especially in the treatment of absence of beds. In the second cultivation, this is not verified, which can be attributed to the end of the summer season, due to the lower temperatures.
Lactuca sativa; Pennisetum glaucum; straw; plastic mulching
