Hedgerow walnuts (cv. Chico) that were irrigated at 33 and 66% ETc from 1986-88 suffered marketable nut yield reductions of 32 and 50%. Upon returning these trees to full irrigation in 1989, tree growth and.water relations immediately recovered but yields were little changed. Harvest yields completely recovered this year (after two years of full irrigation). This indicates that hedgerow walnuts...

The tripartite symbiosis between legumes, rhizobia and mycorrhizal fungi are generally considered to be beneficial for the nitrogen (N) uptake of legumes, but the facilitation of symbiosis in legume/non-legume intercropping systems is not clear. Therefore, the aims of the research are as follows: (1) to verify if the dual inoculation can facilitate the N uptake and N transfer in maize/soybean i...

Multi-species intercropping is a sustainable agricultural practice worldwide used to utilize resources more efficiently. In intercropping systems, short crops often grow under vegetative shade of tall crops. Soybean, one important legume, is often planted in intercropping. However, little is known about the mechanisms of shade inhibition effect on leaf size in soybean leaves at the transcriptom...

BACKGROUND Within-field multiple crop species intercropping is well documented and used for disease control, but the underlying mechanisms are still unclear. As roots are the primary organ for perceiving signals in the soil from neighboring plants, root behavior may play an important role in soil-borne disease control. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS In two years of field experiments, maize/soybean interc...

This pape r tries to illustrate how beneficial interactions between crops can be exploited to increase the overall output of a cropping system. Growth studies with sorghum/pigeonpea and mil let /groundnut a re described to show how intercropping systems can achieve much larger yields than sole crops by using environmental resources more fully over t ime or more efficiently in space. D a t a fro...

Many bacteria and fungi in the plant rhizosphere and endosphere are beneficial to plant nutrient acquisition, health, and growth. Although playing essential roles in ecosystem functioning, our knowledge about the effects of multiple cropping regimes on the plant microbiome and their interactions is still limited. Here, we designed a pot experiment simulating different cropping regimes. For this...

Intercropping is one of the important cultural practices in pest management and is based on the principle of reducing insect pests by increasing the diversity of an ecosystem. On-farm experiments were conducted in villages of semi-arid tropical (SAT) India to identify the appropriate combination of castor (Ricinus communis L.) (Malpighiales: Euphorbiaceae) and intercropping in relation to pest ...

Intercropping is regarded as an important agricultural practice to improve crop production and environmental quality in the regions with intensive agricultural production, e.g., northern China. To optimize agronomic advantage of maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) intercropping system compared to monoculture of maize, two sequential experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 was to s...

Sweet sorghum is a popular grain crop grown in water stress prone areas in the world. Its sole stand leaves ample resources untapped. This study evaluated the feasibility of intercropping sweet sorghum using eight intercropping patterns composed of 2 x 2 x 2 factorial combinations of two legumes (viz. mung bean and soybean), two row patterns [viz. alternate single row (ASR) and double row (ADR)...

Intercropping is considered for increasing and stability of yield per unit. In order to study the effects of different intercropping arrangements on sorghum and mungbean yield and to find the land use advantage in the intercropping system, an experiment was carried out based on a randomized complete block design with seven treatments and three replications at the Research Farm, Faculty of Agric...