Yields and Quality of Spring Wheat Grain in Intercropping System with Different Legume Species

Abstract

Intercropping is a technique in which two or more crops are grown together that is reported to be soil and water friendly. Field trials were conducted at three different localities in the Czech Republic. Spring wheat was grown together with different legumes (Egyptian clover, crimson clover, red clover, white clover, common pea, dun pea, common vetch, bird’s-foot-trefoil, common kidney vetch, and fenugreek) in an organic cropping system. Two basic systems were compared mixture and row-by-row cropping. The yield of grain was lower on average in row-by-row cropping than in the mixture. Lower yields were found in Prague (PR) compared to Uhříněves (UH) and Zvíkov (ZV). The mixture system seemed to be more effective in grain production than cultivation in separate rows (PR 2.14 t/ha, UH 4.71 t/ha, ZV 3.00 t/ha) in terms of spring wheat grain yield in comparison with the mixture system (PR 2.45 t/ha, UH 5.44 t/ha, ZV 3.14 t/ha). Quality parameters such as crude protein, wet gluten, gluten index, Zeleny test of wheat grown with legumes were compared to the control. The mean quality parameters of both systems were the following: test weight 75.75%, crude protein 13.9%, wet gluten 31.5%, Zeleny test 56.2 mL, falling number 266.4 s. The combinations of spring wheat with Egyptian clover, white clover, common vetch, common kidney vetch, and bird’s-foot-trefoil are recommended as the most promising according to the results obtained across all sites and considering all parameters.

Keywords

• intercropping
• legumes
• organic production system
• spring wheat
• yield
• grain characteristics