Yield and gross income of marigold, lettuce and radish in monocrop and intercropped with two arrangements of plants

Abstract

The intercropping of plants presents itself as one of most appropriate methods to the olericulture in agroecological molds, with several advantages in the environment, productive and economic aspects. The aim of this work was to evaluate the yield and gross income of marigold, lettuce and radish grown in monocrop and intercropped, in two arrangements of plants. The marigold ‘Bonina’, the lettuce ‘Verônica’ and the radish ‘Crimson Vip-R’ were allocated in the field in an experiment set. Marigold was studied as factorial 2 (monocrop and intercropping) x 2 (two and three rows of plants per plot) + 2 (intercropped with lettuce and intercropped with radish). Lettuce and radish were studied as factorial 2 (monocrop and intercropping with marigold) x 2 (three and four rows of plants per plot). Ten treatments were arranged in randomized block with four repetitions. The values obtained were analyzed by specie. There was significant interaction between cropping systems and plant arrangement for the number and fresh and dry weight of marigold capitula’s. Marigold grown with three rows produced greater number (4,250.75 mil ha-1) and fresh weight (7,578.00 kg ha-1) and dry (928.09 kg ha-1) of marigold capitula’s intercropped with lettuce produced 5,786.25 and 631.03 kg ha-1 of fresh and dry weight of capitula, regardless of the number of rows. The highest fresh weight of commercial heads of lettuce (7,783.33 kg ha-1) was obtained in the monocrop. The highest yield of radish (3,700.25 kg ha-1) was in the intercropping between marigold three rows and radish four rows. Considering the Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) and gross income, it was concluded that the intercropping was better option than monocrop. For the marigold and lettuce producers is recommended the intercropping marigold with two rows and lettuce with three rows and for the radish producer is recommended the intercropping marigold with two rows and radish with three rows, to obtain highest gross income.