Viabilidade agronômica do consórcio de caupi-hortaliça com rúcula sob adubação orgânica.

Abstract

Growing vegetables in a consortium arrangement is a viable alternative for farmers, especially family-based farmers, who need to increase the spaces for greater production per unit of area. The experiment was performed at Rafael Fernandes Experimental Farm, located in the district of Alagoinha, rural area of Mossoró – RN, from October to December 2018. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of carnauba straw quantities plus cattle manure in the agronomic performance of the arugula cowpea consortium. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design in a 2 x 4 factorial scheme with three replications. The first factor was the single and intercropped cultivation of cowpea and arugula. The second factor was constituted by the quantities of carnauba straw and cattle manure (0.0; 1.5; 3.0; 4.5 kg m-2). The cultivars BRS-Tumucumaque and Cultivada were used for cowpea and rocket, respectively. The characteristics evaluated for cowpea cultivation were number of green pods, length of green pods, yield of green pods, number of beans per pod, weight of 100 grains, and yield of green beans. For arugula cultivation, the following characteristics were used: plant height, number of leaves, yield, number of sauces and dry mass. Consortium efficiency was evaluated by the equivalent area ratio (RAE). The amount of 4.5 kg m-2 of carnauba straw plus cattle manure was the one that provided the highest productive performance in the evaluated characteristics of cowpea, with values of 41.3 g for green grain weight and 0.518 kg 2.0. m-2 for green grain production. For the arugula culture, the amount of 3.0 kg m-2, provided arugula yield of 1.36 kg m-2 and 27.63 units of sauces 2.0 m-2. The consortium system was efficient in promoting system improvement, promoting increase in productivity.