Green manure is one way of supplying organic matter to soil. The mixed cultivation of crops may be an alternative to increase nutrient cycling and to improve productivity. To evaluate intercrops of green manure and corn, soil chemical characteristics, green manure dry matter production and its mineral composition and corn yield were determined in a field experiment carried out between 1995 and 1997 on an Aleudalf Soil in Piracicaba, state of São Paulo, Brazil. Corn was sown in rows spaced 90 cm apart to obtain approximately 50,000 plants per hectare. The treatments consisted of four green manure species: dwarf mucuna [Mucuna deeringiana (Bort.) Merr], dwarf pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.), crotalaria (Crotalaria spectabilis Roth), jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis L.), plus a control without green manure. Green manure species were sown without fertilizer application in a single row in-between the rows simultaneously with corn or 30 days after corn sowing. The experimental design consisted of randomized blocks in split plots and four replicates. Jack bean produced most phytomass and accumulated the highest amounts of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and S. In the first year of cultivation, the corn yields were not affected by the intercropped cultivation with green manure, but in the second year the yield was highest when corn was intercropped with jack bean.
nutrients; Zea mays; dwarf mucuna; dwarf pigeon pea; crotalaria spectabilis; jack beans
