New farming practices have been developed to reduce the application of fertilizer and pesticides and minimize the aggression to the environment, producing healthy foods and environmentally correct. We evaluated the performance of the succession of collard greens (Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala) and corn (Zea mays L.) intercropped with green manure legumes under no-tillage organic system. The study was conducted in Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro State, during two years. We utilized dwarf velvet bean (Mucuna deeringiana) and showy crotalaria (Crotalaria spectabilis) as green manure intercropped with collard greens and in succession sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) and velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) intercropped with corn. As a control, there was a single crop system of corn and collard greens. The experimental design was of randomized complete blocks, a factorial 3 (crop system) x 2 (doses of poultry bed manure), with four replications, in plots of 20 m². For the collard greens we applied 0 and 5.4 t ha-1 of poultry bed manure (2.7 t ha-1 in two applications) in 2003; 0 (zero) and 2.7 t ha-1 in 2004. In the monocrop system, the yield of collard greens was of 37.7 and 18.4 t ha-1, intercropped with dwarf velvet bean the yield reached 40.3 and 38.8 t ha-1 and, using showy crotalaria the yield was of 42.9 and 24.8 t ha-1, in 2003 and 2004, respectively. The corn was benefited from the residual effect of fertilizer with poultry bed manure increasing the production of ears from 25,625 to 27,916 ha-1. Crop succession of collard greens and corn, intercropped with annual legumes under organic fertilization as poultry bed manure, showed yield increase for collard greens and corn.
Brassica oleracea L. var. acephala; Zea mays L.; Crotalaria spp.; Mucuna spp.; organic agriculture
