Mass and nutrient accumulation by green manures and sugarcane plant yield grown in succession, in two locations of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

The study aimed to evaluate and characterize the yield of dried plant material of plants cultivate after previous cover crop with sugarcane, its natural infection by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and its relation to agricultural and industrial yield of sugarcane. The experiment was carried out from October 2006 to August 2008 in Hapludox soil, at Tietê, and a Paliudalf soil at Piracicaba, SP, Brazil. We used randomized complete block design with 13 treatments and five replications, in two locations. The treatments were sown in October and November 2006. The harvest of green manures was done in January 2007. Sugarcane planting (Cv. IAC87-3396) was made of in each plot, staying on the field for 18 months and harvested in August and September 2008. For the green manure sunn hemp IAC-1, and pigeon pea IAC-Fava Larga and IAC-dwarf showed the best production of dried plant material, the higher accumulation of nutrients and increased agricultural and industrial yield of sugarcane, behind velvet bens black and green.The largest percentage of mycorrhizal infection by AMF was observed in treatments with soybean, sunn hemp IAC-1, sunflower IAC-Uruguay, mung beans and pigeon beans IAC- Fava Larga at Tietê, SP. No difference was observed in percentage of mycorrhizal infection by AMF at Piracicaba, SP