The inter-row management of citrus orchards has undergone major changes in recent years. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of winter cover crops and rotary mower in sweet orange 'Pêra' production. The experiment was conducted in two seasons (2007/2008 and 2008/2009), in a split plot design, where at the plots three species of winter cover crops (oat, lupine and radish) were sown in April and in sub-plots it was used two types of rotary mower (conventional and ecological). Natural vegetation (NV) and NV+herbicide (glyphosate) in the total area were the standard treatments of the experiment. In July (2007 and 2008) it was measured the mass of fresh and dry mass of each treatment and also after mowing. To calculate the production in August (2007 and 2008) the fruit were harvested and weighted and later it was obtained the efficiency of production. The treatments with winter cover crops showed greater production of fresh and dry mass and the use of ecological rotary mower released amount of plant material significantly higher under the canopy of sweet orange 'Pera' plants. In two seasons, higher production and efficiency of fruit production occurred in plots using the ecological rotary mower. Only lupines increased the efficiency of production of sweet orange 'Pêra' in 2009. Thus, it can be concluded that the use of ecological rotary mower increases the production of sweet orange 'Pera'.
rotary mower; cover crops; Citrus sinensis
