Above‐ and below‐ground competition between barley, wheat, lupin and vetch in a cereal and legume intercropping system

Abstract

The effects of intercropping on dry weight (DW) of herbage and nitrogen (N) nutrition of plants of two winter cereals, barley and wheat, and two legumes, white lupin and common vetch, were investigated, and above- and below-ground competition were separated in a fully factorial additive design. Intercropping increased DW compared with the sole species and the increase was higher for the cereals and lupin than for cereals and vetch intercropping systems. Above-ground competition for light reduced DW of cereals and lupin while it did not influence the DW of vetch. Processes involved in below-ground competition increased shoot growth of cereals and reduced shoot growth of legumes. N nutrition of cereals was enhanced by below-ground competition with legumes and N nutrition of vetch was enhanced by above-ground competition with cereals. Cereals had a higher competitive ability than legumes as a result of their below-ground competitive ability. The interaction between above- and below-competition is not predictable: negative, positive and no interaction (additivity) between different types of competition were found. In low-input intercropping systems, when a N-fixing species is present, the mixture of the roots of components is important for the utilization of the soil resources and, when a climbing species is also present, the mixture of shoots can result in an increased utilization of light

Effects of Mixture Ratio and Row Spacing in Hungarian Vetch (Vicia pannonica Crantz.) and Annual Ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) Intercropping Sys

“…The competitive ability of the plants show differences among the species (Mariotti et al 2009), and there may be an aboveground competition for light and space and below grow competition for water and nutrients among the plants species (Mariotte et al 2012;Koc et al 2013). The growth of legumes is very slow in winter due to low temperatures, while cereals produce tillers and stems, and cover the small legume seedlings (Twidwell et al 1987).…”

“…Legumes are a particularly good source of protein (Eskandari et al 2009) and incorporating them into an intercropping system could be of paramount importance for the nutritive value of forage (Nadeem et al 2010). Another advantage of grass-legume intercropping is that nitrogen (N) can be transferred from the legume into the soil; hence, grasses can use it during their growth (Lauk and Lauk 2009;Mariotti et al 2009). Accordingly, this system has risen in popularity lately worldwide and it has been a common cropping method in rain-fed areas, particularly in Mediterranean countries such as Turkey (Lithourgidis et al 2006;Dhima et al 2007).…”

“…In the mixtures, for example, an increased proportion of the cereal in its mixture with vetch significantly decreases the stand lodging, and has a positive influence on the forage yield, but the forage nutrient is of a poorer quality (Karagic et al 2012), because a high cereal ratio in the botanic composition of legume+cereal mixtures causes low protein. Mariotti et al (2009) reported that cereals had a higher belowground competitive ability than legumes and legumes had a higher aboveground competitive ability than cereals in their mixtures, and that the competitive ability of the plants showed differences among the species. Between plant species, there may be aboveground competition for light and space, and belowground competition for water and nutrients (Mariotte et al 2012).…”

Effect of pea and spring cereals intercropping on grain yield and crude protein content

“…In many countries, legume plants have recently been receiving increasing attention from researchers and growers (Hauggaard-Nielsen et al 2009, Mariotti et al 2009, Stoddard et al 2009, Mikić et al 2010. Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is the most common legume in crop rotations and quite productive in temperate conditions, as well as in Lithuania (Auskalnis 2001).…”

Organic Matter, Protein Percentage, Yield, Competition and Economics of Oat-Soybean and Oat-Groundnut Intercropping Systems in Northern China

“…However, oat seed yield in soybean and oat intercropping had significant differences with other treatments ( Table 2). Some other researchers also stated that in intercropping system of cereal with a legume, forage yield is much higher than that of the legume sole crop is higher than that of the cereal sole crop (Mariotti et al, 2009;Yolcu et al, 2009). The maximum protein percentage in ripening stage was achieved in soybean mono-cropping followed mono-cropping of groundnut and solo-cropping of oat, respectively.…”