Evaluation of Productivity and Competition Indices of Safflower and Fenugreek As Affected By Intercropping Pattern and Foliar Fertilization Rate

This experiment was conducted for two consecutive seasons of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 at the Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Egypt, to evaluated the effect of different intercropping patterns (safflower: fenugreek at different row ratios; 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3 in comparison with sole cropped of each specie), different foliar fertilization levels (0, 2 and 4 g/l) and their combination treatments on growth, yield components and some active ingredients as well as competitive indices of safflower and fenugreek. The obtained results revealed that the most of parameters of both crops under evaluation were increased with intercropping pattern treatments compared to safflower or fenugreek sole crop in the first and second seasons, also, the same trend were achieved by foliar fertilization at 4 g/l. Furthermore, the maximum increase in land equivalent ratio and area time equivalent ratio as well land utilization efficiency percentage were obtained from the treatment of 2 and 4 g/l in combined with 1:2 and 1:3 intercropping patterns in both seasons compared with control. In all mixtures, positive aggressivity values for safflower showed that safflower was the dominant specie whereas the negative values for fenugreek showed that it was the dominated one.