Desiccation time of millet and soil management for crisphead lettuce cultivated in the summer

• Grant number: 11/19198-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2011
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Andréia Cristina Silva Hirata
• Grantee: Rafaela Marchesi Barrionuevo
• Host Institution: Agência Paulista de Tecnologia dos Agronegócios (APTA). Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Increasing the lettuce productivity in the summer is one of the biggest challenges of horticulture, especially the lettuce. Straw-tillage of cover crops is a technique that has been studied recently for various vegetables. For the lettuce crop, the tillage of cover crops can reduce the effects of summer weather, and provide a more sustainable production system. The stadium is more suitable for drying the millet planting lettuce, and planting in raised beds or directly on the ground, among others, are issues that need to be studied for the culture in the summer. The objective of this project is to evaluate management strategies for cover crops for soil tillage lettuce in the summer, as well as the impact of these techniques on crop productivity, the incidence of weeds, straw decomposition, temperature, and soil moisture. Treatments will be arranged in a split-plot with four replications, being the main plot factor, the plantation managements (1 - directly on the ground or 2 - plots) and the subplots, the soil cover (1 - the dried millet 28 days after emergence - DAE; 2 - millet dried at 42 DAE; 3 - millet dried at 56 DAE; 4 - millet dried at 70 DAE; 5 - no millet, with spontaneous vegetation dried under the same conditions that millet, 6 - plastic mulching; 7 - without cover crops, and weed control throughout the cycle of lettuce). Will be assessed two crop cycles of lettuce on the same land cover and the impacts of management practices on crop productivity, the incidence of weeds, straw decomposition, temperature, and soil moisture. The data will be submitted for analysis of variance and means compared by the Tukey test at 5% probability.(AU)