The experiment was conducted in Seropédica, State of Rio de Janeiro, with three treatments for green manure, composed of corn, corn intercropped with crotalaria, and crotalaria, in randomized blocks. Baby corn was harvestedduring growth. After cutting the plants, the treatments were combined with two ways of soil preparation: no-tillage and conventional preparation, in a subplot design, with subsequent planting of kale. The evaluations werethe following: production of fresh and dry matter and accumulation of nutrients in the aerial part of green manures; yield, straw weight and number of ears; nutrient accumulation in the ears; length, diameter, and weight of the baby corn ears and number of ears per plant; yields, number of leaves, leaf area, dry matter, yield per harvest, specific area per harvest and accumulation of N in the kale; and balance of N in the system. Corn monoculture provided good yields and a greater number of commercially viable baby corn ears (797.2 kg ha-1 and 123,785 un ha-1, respectively), as well as higher concentrations of N, P, Ca and Mg in the dehusked ears and of N, K, and Ca in the straw of the husks whereas the intercropping provided a greater number of ears per plant (0.91). The highest biomass yield was provided by crotalaria and corn intercropping (7.43 Mg ha-1). The accumulation of nitrogen provided by the intercropping was greater than the corn monoculture, but equivalent to the crotalaria monoculture. For the kale, there was a difference only in the output of leaves (1,967,083 un ha-1), in which the no-tillage system was higher.
agroecology; Brassica oleracea var. acephala; Crotalaria juncea; no-tillage; organic agriculture; Zea mays
