Biological and production responses of intercropped plants of pea, spring wheat, and linseed

Abstract

Given the growing interest in ecological intensification directed towards sustainable crop production, a study was conducted to assess the biological and production response of pea intercropped with spring wheat or linseed under various growing conditions. The experiment was conducted in 2009–2011 on a Haplic Phaeozem soil in the western part of Poland. Intercropping of pea significantly reduced the green area index and the normalized difference vegetation index values, but growing pea with linseed caused a significant increase in the number of nodes with pods, pods per stem, and seeds per stem. Intercropping with wheat increased the seed number per pod. Seed inoculation with Nitragina significantly increased the number of pea pods and seeds per stem. Wheat intercropped with pea, with inoculation and foliar fertilization, attained significantly lower straw weight and spike length. Intercropping of linseed significantly reduced the features of the yield structure. Bacterial inoculation increased the production potential of pea at the expense of the supporting plants.

Keywords

• Pisum sativum L.
• plant interaction
• Rhizobium inoculation