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THE STRUCTURE AND YIELD LEVEL OF SWEET CORN DEPENDING ON THE TYPE OF WINTER CATCH CROPS AND WEED CONTROL METHOD
 
 
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Department of Vegetables Crop, Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities, B. Prusa 14, 08-110 Siedlce, Poland
 
 
Publication date: 2014-10-07
 
 
J. Ecol. Eng. 2014; 15(4):118-130
 
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ABSTRACT
Organic manuring is suggested to be necessary in sweet corn cultivation. It is not always possible to use farmyard manure due to economic, production or technical reasons. Catch crops used as green manures can be an alternative source of organic matter. The experiment was carried out in central-east Poland (52°06’N, 22°55’E), in years 2008–2011. The successive effect of winter catch crops (hairy vetch, white clover, winter rye, Italian ryegrass, winter turnip rape) and the type of weed control on the growth and yielding of sweet corn was examined. The catch crops were sown in early September, incorporated in early May. The effect of the winter catch crops on yield was compared to the effect of FYM at a rate of 30 t·ha-1 and the control without organic manuring. The sweet corn was grown directly after organic fertilization. Three methods of weed control was used: Hw – hand weeding, twice during the growing period, GCM – herbicide Guardian CompleteMix 664 SE, immediately after sowing the seed corn, Z+T – a mixture of herbicides Zeagran 340 SE + Titus 25 WG, in the 3–4 leaf stage sweet corn. The highest yields of biomass were found for winter rye (35.5 t·ha-1 FM and 7.3 t·ha-1 DM), the most of macroelements accumulated winter turnip rape (480.2 kg N+P+K+Ca+Mg·ha-1). Generally, leguminous catch crops had similar to the FYM and better than non-leguminous catch crops yield-forming effect. The highest yield of marketable ears of sweet corn was obtained after FYM (14.4 t·ha-1) and after hairy vetch catch crop (14.0 t·ha-1). A similar yield-forming effect also had white clover and Italian ryegrass. The most of ears from 1 ha was achieved after white clover catch crop (59.3 tausend), similar after FYM and hairy vetch catch crop. The highest kernel yields were found after FYM (10.7 t·ha<-1). The yields of kernel after hairy vetch and white clover catch crops were significantly higher than after non-leguminous catch crops. Z+T weed control method increase marketable yield of sweet corn (by 25–30%) and a number of ears (by 17–22%), compared to hand weeding and GCM weed control method.
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