Two experiments were conducted at the Campos Experiment Station - Pesagro-Rio, during the winter season of 1995 and 1996, to evaluate the performance of carrot and lettuce in an intercropping system. For the first experiment the lettuce cultivars comprised Babá-de Verão, Regina-71, Vitória, Brasil-303 and Carolina, whilst for the second experiment comprised Carolina, Elisa, Regina-71, Vitória and Marisa. The carrot cultivar Brasília was used in both experiments. Lettuce cultivars were used in monoculture and in an intercropping with carrot. The experimental design comprised randomized blocks with four replications. For carrot, six treatments were analysed (monoculture and intercropping with five lettuce cultivars), and for lettuce, a factorial arrangement with two systems and five cultivars was used. Each experimental plot had the dimensions of 1 m x 1.5 m. The intercropping system efficiency was measured by the "Land Equivalent Ratio" (LER) technique. For both experiments and crops, in monoculture and intercropping system, productions were considered suitable for marketing. However, when carrot was intercropped with the lettuce cultivar Marisa there was a decrease observed in carrot root quality. The LER values of 1.74 and 1.76 provide evidence that this practice was advantageous in both experiments, that is, to harvest the equivalent production of lettuce or carrot in a monoculture system there would be a need to increase the planted area by 74% and 76%, considering two years of experimentation, respectively
Lactuca sativa; Daucus carota; monoculture; intercropping; Land Equivalent Ratio
