Integration of green manure intercropping and fertilizer-N for yield and juice quality and better soil conditions in sugarcane grown after mustard and wheat in different plant arrangements

Abstract

The effects of different plant arrangements (conventional single rows v. paired rows at a standard density of 55–67 thousand three-bud setts/ha) with different intercropped green manuring strategies with Sesbania aculeata (none v. ploughed in after 4 and 6 weeks) and with different amounts of nitrogen (N) fertilizers (0,75 and 150kg/ha) were studied in sugarcane crops planted after wheat or mustard and in its first ratoon. The yield of millable cane from the planted sugarcane was not affected by intercropped green manuring or plant arrangement but was increased by fertilizer N after both wheat and mustard. The residues from the green manuring and fertilizer N both increased the yield of the following crop of ratoon sugarcane by 9–10% with the residues increasing the numbers and length of millable canes and the fertilizer N the number, girth and weight of the millable canes. None of the treatments affected the quality of cane juice in either the planted cane or the ratoon crop. Residues from the green manures and the N fertilizer treatments increased the organic carbon content and available N in the soils.