Moment for the introduction of green fertilizing with crotalaria in intercropping with the cultivation of corn

Abstract

The combination of cultivation and green fertilizing works in improving the quality of the soil
exhausted by the intense previous exploitation, mitigating them in the physical, nutritional aspects
and promoting increase in the productivity of the successive crops to their adoption.
Crotalaria juncea, which is an excellent ‘green fertilizing’, however, in the early stages, has a
higher development rate than many crops and can compromise the performance of what one
intends to grow, such as corn cob production. Thus, the objective of this work was plant Crotalaria
juncea as green manure before, at the time and after planting in a intercropping with
the main maize crop, evaluating the best situation through the production of green corn cobs.
The ‘single’ corn was also cultivated. The results indicated that the introduction of Crotalaria 15
days after the planting of maize was equivalent to the production obtained with the cultivation
in ‘single’, without affecting the production of corn cobs, and Crotalaria planted 15 days before
compromises totally the production of maize.