Desenvolvimento de milho safrinha para silagem em consórcio de plantas forrageiras

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the agronomic characteristics of maize safrinha cultivated in a consortium system with Urochloa ruziziensis and Lolium multiflorum. The experiment was installed in the field at Fazenda Santa - Fé, Laranjeiras do Sul - Paraná. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design, arranged in a split-plot arrangement with three treatments and four replications. The treatments consisted of single corn cultivation, maize intercropping with U.ruziziensis, and corn intercropped with Lolium multiflorum. The plots consisted of squares with 4 m of side, corresponding to 16 m ², and the useful area was constituted by the six central lines, excluding 1 m of each edge, totaling 9 m ². The evaluated variables were plant height (AP), ear insertion height (IE), natural matter (MN) and dry matter of forage plants and treatments, number of grains per ear (NG), weight of one thousand seeds), final corn and fodder plants, mean corn productivity and weed suppression. The maize plants in consortium presented lower height in comparison to the other treatments, however it had greater accumulation of dry matter. In addition, the consortium with U. ruziziensis showed a high potential for weed population reduction, mainly by plants with herbicide resistant biotypes in southern Brazil such as Conyza bonariensis. Some morphological characteristics of the corn were modified by the presence of plants in a consortium, but the losses were acceptable levels, due to the increase of vegetal cover in the soil.