Weeds in a Sugar Cane Soil Cultivated with 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.

Characterization of weed flora in a cassava crop in Tabasco

“…The floristic list of weeds in the cassava crop included 32 species that were placed in 28 genera and 16 botanical families (Table 1); 26 species are dicotyledonous (81.2%) and similar values were reported by García-Jiménez (2015), Naranjo-Landero (2020) and Obrador-Olán et al (2019) in sugarcane in the same region. The best represented families were: Convolvulaceae with 5 species, and Asteraceae, Cyperaceae and Poaceae with 3 each.…”

Arvenses en un suelo cultivado con caña de azúcar con fertilización mineral y abono verde

“…De las 38 especies que componen la lista florística, 25 corresponden al grupo de las dicotiledóneas, resultados que coinciden con los reportados por Obrador-Olán et al, (2019), (García, 2015) y Pérez et al, (2014) en caña de azúcar. Las tres familias más diversas en esta investigación: Asteraceae, Euphorbiaceae y Poaceae figuran entre las cinco más importantes en los trabajos antes mencionados, en los que Phyllanthaceae aún estaba incluida en Euphorbiaceae.…”

“…La incorporación de abonos verdes (AV) se realiza esencialmente para controlar las arvenses, incrementar los contenidos de materia orgánica, mejorar la actividad biológica y las propiedades físicas del suelo, aumentar la disponibilidad de nutrientes y reducir el uso de fertilizantes minerales (Kim et al, 2013;Li et al, 2015). Como AV se utilizan generalmente leguminosas, plantas que tienen la capacidad de proporcionar N a los suelos, mediante la fijación biológica, lo que permite disminuir o evitar el uso de fertilizantes nitrogenados (Li et al, 2015), pero sobre todo, se incrementa la fertilidad física, química y biológica y con ello mejora la salud del suelo (Obrador-Olán et al, 2019). Sesbania herbacea (Mill.)…”