hello every one, i am going to conduct an experiment on maize and alfalfa intercropping system, my research design will be as fallow
a pot experiment entitle above and below ground study of maize/alfalfa intercropping system.
in which three plant pattern will be carry out ,
1. maize/alfalfa (no separation)
2. maize/alfalfa ( semi separation with nylon net 50 um)
3. maize alfalfa (complete separation with the help of plastic sheet)
here my question is what what basal dose of NPK should be need for these crops and what will be the fertilizer calculation for pot experiment?
and another question if some one have best idea about intercropping research regarding cereal and legumes please share
thanks in advance
For the pot intercropping experiment I would suggest a maize alone and alfalfa alone treatment. Since maize needs a lot of soil I would use large pots. will be needed. For intercropping you might want to first establish your alfalfa which when well established could provide for the nitrogen requirement of the maize. For maize alone I would plant a single plant in the center of a large pot. For intercropping with alfalfa would suggest 4 alfalfa plants in a cross pattern. Once alfalfa was inoculated and well established it could provide the nitrogen requirement for maize. Do not use any nitrogen for your alfalfa as it inhibits biological nitrogen fixation. For the maize alone 150-50-150 kg/ha NPK would give a need optimum maize development. For your alfalfa 0-50-150 kg/ha NPK would be good with inoculation to ensure the biological nitrogen fixation with be optimized. A good system for employing alfalfa for supplying cropping needs is to use a winter wheat alfalfa interplanting and keep the alfalfa for one to two years after the establishment in the winter wheat the residual nitrogen from the alfalfa forage crops is more than sufficient to optimize a maize crop without any additional need for supplemental nitrogen as the soil reserve is charged to fulfill the maize needs.
We're expecting to obtain some interesting results on intercropping research in the SUREVEG project http://projects.au.dk/coreorganiccofund/news-and-events/show/artikel/sureveg-new-diversified-cropping-systems-for-vegetables/
To best of my knowledge, pot experiments shall not be a good idea for intercropping of these two crops.Rather go for field studies where you can decide a fix number of rows to be intercropped (4:2 od 2:1 or 3:1 in lieu of intercropping of maize and alfalfa).This ratio depends upon the stature (plant height) of maize crop.Smaller is the height , more number of inter rows of alfala can be accomodated as intercropping.
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