An experiment was carried out between December 1997 and March 1998, in the Escola Superior de Agricultura de Mossoró, Brazil, to evaluate the performance of five lettuce cultivars in two cropping systems (with and without intercropping with the carrot cv. Brasília) as well as the performance of carrot treatments in these cropping systems, under high temperature and ample sunlight of Mossoró. This experiment was carried out in an Eutrophic Yellow Red Argissolo. The experimental design was of randomized complete blocks in a 2 x 5 factorial scheme with five replications. The planting systems were the first factor and the lettuce cv. (Babá de Verão, Elisa, Great Lakes, Regina and Tainá) were the second factor. There was, in each block, a plot with carrot without intercropping to assess the combined indices of the intercropping systems. Two types of univariate analyses of variance were performed, one to evaluate the lettuce traits and another for the carrot characteristics. Crop production was considered suitable for the marketing. Independently of the cropping system used, higher lettuce yield was observed in the cultivar Babá de Verão. The intercropping system which gave the best economic performance and greater land equivalent ratio (1.16) was carrot plus cultivar Regina. Carrot root yield was not affected by the competition of lettuce cultivars.
Lactuca sativa; Daucus carota; intercropping; agroeconomic index; cropping systems
