ABSTRACT
The objective of this work was to evaluate the performance of intercropped corn with tifton grass in South Western Amazonia. The experimental design was randomized blocks with six treatments and four replications. The treatments consisted of corn monocultures and tifton grass, and four transplantation periods of tifton between the corn sowing lines, as follows: simultaneously, at 15, 30 and 45 days after sowing corn. For corn, these were evaluated: biomass of 100 grains, number of kernel rows per ear, grain yield, plant height and insertion of the first spike. The dry biomass of tifton grass was estimated from two cuts with an interval of 20 days between the first and second collections. To evaluate the performance of intercrops compared to monocultures, we used the area equivalence ratio. The results were submitted to the Shapiro-Wilk test (p ≤ 0.05) in order to assess the normality of the data, followed by analysis of variance. Regression models were adjusted for the period of implantation of tifton grass between the corn sowing lines, when there was a significant effect by F test, at 5% probability. The Dunnet test was used (p ≤ 0.05) for the comparisons between the corn intercropped with tifton and monocultures (control). Corn is not affected when intercropping with tifton grass. However, tifton has a lower accumulation of dry biomass when intercropped with corn. The best performance of the consortium was the simultaneous implantation of corn with tifton grass.
Key words:
Cynodon dactylon; Crop-Livestock Integration; Zea may
