Response of maize agronomic traits,yield,water and fertilizer use efficiency to intercropping green manure under reduced irrigation levels in arid irrigation areas
A split-zone experiment was conducted from 2020 to 2022 with a main plot comparing maize inter-cropped with common vetch(M‖V)and sole maize(SM),and a split-plot design testing three irrigation levels:high(I3,400 mm),medium(I2,340 mm),and low(I1,280 mm).The objective was to investigate the effects of intercropping green manure on agronomic traits,yield,soil total nitrogen content,water use efficiency(WUE),and nitrogen partial factor productivity(PFPF)of maize under reduced irrigation conditions.The results indicated that the M‖V treatment significantly enhanced maize plant height,stem diameter,and ear height,with increases ranging from 6.3％～14.3％,5.4％～12.0％,and 12.5％～22.1％,respectively,compared to SM treatment.Fur-thermore,intercropping led to enhancements in maize ear length,ear diameter,row number per ear,and kernel number per row,with increases of 5.7％～20.2％,3.7％～13.6％,2.7％～5.9％and 6.8％～17.7％,respectively.Within the intercropping patterns,no significant differences were found between M‖VI2 and M‖VI3 concerning maize plant height,stem diameter,ear height,ear length,ear diameter,row number per ear and kernel number per row.Each of these indices exhibited significant increases of 6.7％～7.7％,4.9％～5.8％,7.7％～11.6％,6.2％～11.3％,2.0％～5.1％,1.0％～2.0％and 5.2％～10.3％,respectively,compared to the M‖VI1 treatment.The M‖V treatment demonstrated significant yield improvements over the SM treatment,with grain yield and biomass increase ranging from 7.7％～27.9％and 5.7％～19.2％,respectively.No significant differences were observed in grain yield and biomass yield between the M‖VI2 and M‖VI3 treatments,and the two indicators were significant-ly enhanced by5.7％～15.5％and 4.7％～8.0％compared to M‖VI1 treatment,respectively.Additionally,the M‖V treatment significantly improved total nitrogen content in the 0～40 cm soil layer,WUE and PFPF by 5.8％～7.9％,12.4％～28.3％and 7.7％～27.9％,respectively,compared to the SM treatment.In the intercropping pat-tern,no significant differences in PFPF were noted between the M‖VI2 and M‖VI3 treatments,and the lower ir-rigation treatment resulted in a significant increase in PFPF by 5.7％～15.5％.In contrast,the M‖VI2 treatment exhibited a significant increase WUE of 7.7％～10.8％when compared to the M‖VI3 treatment.The study demon-strated that intercropping with common vetch significantly enhances soil total nitrogen content,which in turn im-proves various maize plant characteristics,including plant height,stem diameter,ear height,ear length,ear diam-eter,and row number per ear.These improvements ultimately led to an increase in both the grain number per ear and the 1000-grain weight,ensuring that maize yield was maintained under medium irrigation(340 mm),thereby increasing the efficiency of water and fertilizer use.Consequently,intercropping common vetch with 340 mm of irri-gation is recommended as a high-efficiency strategy for maize intercropping with green manure within the safe range of water resources in Hexi irrigation district.
maizegreen manure intercroppingreduced irrigationagronomic traitsyieldwater and fertil-izer use efficiency
万方数据
维普
