Weed growth and sweet corn yield as affected by planting patterns and mulch types in organic farming practice

Abstract

Weed is the main problem in organic agriculture. Intercropping is an agricultural practice to control weeds. The study intended to compare weed growth and sweet corn yield in intercropping and monoculture patterns with different mulch types and to determine the best planting pattern and mulch type for crop growth and yield. A field experiment was conducted at the CAPS Research Station situated in Air Duku Village, Rejang Lebong, Bengkulu, at 1054 m above sea level. The experiment used Completely Randomized Block Design (RCBD) with two factors. There were no interactions between planting patterns and organic mulch types on weed growth and sweet corn yield. Intercropping sweet corn-kidney bean and sweet corn-string bean suppressed the growth of weeds. Also, intercropping of sweet corn-kidney bean or sweet corn-string bean had similar sweet corn yield with monoculture. Rice straw and rice husk mulch suppressed weeds growth better than coffee husk mulch.

Effects of different management practices on the growth and yield of corn

“…According to Nurjanah et al (2021), rice husk mulch treatment produced a lower average weed dry weight than without mulch. Rice husk mulch on the best practices treatment effectively suppressed weed growth by 163.63-281.81%, so it did not inhibit growth and produced greater dry weight than plants without rice husk mulch treatment.…”

“…Using organic mulch reduces water stress in the root zone area and increases organic matter, crop yield, and water productivity while providing energy savings of up to 50% (Alhashimi et al, 2023). Combining drip irrigation with rice husk as an organic mulch can provide benefits such as reducing evaporation losses (Sudprasert and Sankaewthong, 2018), increasing nutrient efficiency (Thiyageshwari et al, 2018), reducing or preventing runoff and soil loss in loamy soil (Ahmadi, Ghasemi and Sepaskhah, 2020), and inhibiting weed growth (Nurjanah et al, 2021).…”