effects of intercropping on biological yield, percentage of nitrogen and morphological characteristics of coriander and fenugreek

in order to study the intercropping arrangements of coriander (coriandrum sativum l.) and fenugreek (trigonella foenum-graecum l.), a field experiment was conducted during growing season of 2010 at agriculture research station, college of agriculture, ferdowsi university of mashhad, iran. a randomized complete block design with three replications was used. treatments included: mono-crop of fenugreek (a), %25 of optimum density of coriander + %175 of optimum density of fenugreek (b), %50 of optimum density of coriander + %150 of optimum density of fenugreek (c), %75 of optimum density of coriander + %125 of optimum density of fenugreek (d), %100 of optimum density of coriander + %100 of optimum density of fenugreek (e), mono-crop of coriander (f), %125 of optimum density of coriander + %75 of optimum density of fenugreek (g), %150 of optimum density of coriander + %50 of optimum density of fenugreek (h), %175 of optimum density of coriander + %25 of optimum density of fenugreek (i). biological yield harvested in coriander at %5 flowering stage and in fenugreek at %20 flowering stage. the result showed that b treatment had highest plant height and biological yield of fenugreek, highest total land equivalent ratio and also b treatment had lowest essential oil contents of leaf, essential oil yield and biological yield of coriander. i treatment had lowest biological yield of fenugreek and it had highest essential oil contents of leaf, essential oil yield and plant height in coriander. also a and e treatments had highest percent of nitrogen of biomass in fenugreek and coriander, respectively.