Weeds in a Sugar Cane Soil Cultivated with Crotalaria juncea

Plantas Daninhas em um Solo Canavieiro Cultivado com Crotalaria juncea

ABSTRACT:

Cover crops play an important role in sustainable agriculture, as they decrease soil erosion, promote the incorporation of nitrogen into the soil and reduce or modify weed communities. Aiming at evaluating the changes related to the cultivation and incorporation of sunn crotalaria (Crotalaria juncea L.1753) in a weed community of a soil cultivated with sugarcane, an agro-industrial crop of vital importance to La Chontalpa region, Tabasco, Mexico, an experiment encompassing the cultivation cycle and the incorporation of the dry phytomass of this cover crop was carried out. The treatments included three levels of fertilization and two controls, the plots of the first control were interspersed with those of the treatments, while the second control was placed outside, in order to avoid the shade effect caused by crotalaria. Sampling was carried out monthly, and the data obtained from samplings allowed the calculation of weed diversity and importance value (IVI) indexes, in addition to dry phytomass production values. The results showed that the fertilization did not exert any influence on the composition, diversity or importance of the weeds, factors that were more related to the rainy season, period in which the research on the cultivation, cutting and incorporation of crotalaria into the soil was performed. Although the best represented family was Euphorbiaceae, its species were not among the most important in the community in which Cyperus rotundus L. 1753, Lindernia crustacea (L.) F. Muell. 1882, Scleria setuloso-ciliata Boeckeler 1882, Ageratum houstonianum Mill, 1768 and Acmella repens (Walter) Rich. 1807 stood out. The dry biomass of the weeds showed statistical differences between the plots with and without crotalaria, considering that lower values were observed in the control groups; however, the total dry phytomass production was extremely higher in the cultivated plots, highlighting the importance of using this species as green manure.

Keywords:
sunn crotalaria; Saccharum; weed control; cover crop