The adoption of crop rotation and crop sequence systems is one of the fundamental prerequisites for the sustainability of agricultural production. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of ryegrass desiccation time and nitrogen fertilizer applied at sowing of irrigated rice, in succession, as a management strategy in irrigated rice cultivation. The field experiment was carried out in two growing seasons (2008/09 and 2009/10), in Cachoeirinha, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on a typical dystrophic Ta Haplic Gleysol. The design was a randomized complete block, with three replications. The treatments, laid out in split plots, consisted of four periods of ryegrass desiccation (90, 70, 50 and 30 days before sowing rice in the first year, and 49, 34, 19 and 6 in the second year of cultivation), and five nitrogen fertilization systems of rice, consisting of a combination of four N rates applied at sowing (0, 10, 20, and 40 kg ha-1) and four N rates as top dressing (150, 140, 130, and 110 kg ha-1), resulting in a total of 150 kg ha-1, plus a control without N application throughout the crop cycle. The initial establishment of rice plants grown in succession was not affected by the presence of upright-standing dry ryegrass plants. In both years, rice grain yield was not influenced by the desiccation time of ryegrass nor the N rate applied at sowing.
Oryza sativa; Lolium multiflorum Lam.; management practices; desiccation time; nitrogen fertilization
