SATURAÇÃO POR BASES NA INTEGRAÇÃO LAVOURA-PECUÁRIA COM CULTIVO DE MILHO NOS DOIS PRIMEIROS ANOS

Abstract

Most pastures in the Cerrado have some degree of degradation. The strategy of introducing maize in a intercropping with grass in pasture recovery is a viable alternative. But because the Cerrado soils are acidic, for this technique to be feasible, among other factors, one of the main factors is to know the level of base saturation for maize in a intercropping. The objective of this study was to evaluate base saturation in corn crop, intercropped with Brachiaria brizantha cv. Marandu. The experimental design was randomized complete block design with four replicates, arranged in a 4x2 factorial scheme, with four levels of base saturation (25% "control: no lime", 45, 60 and 75%) and two forms of cultivation (intercropped and solecropped). In the first year of evaluation, there was no difference for any of the factors tested. In the second year, the cultivation forms did not differ as well, saturation levels influenced the corn crop, where in the intercropping the base saturation levels of 56% and 53% presented higher values ​​for plant height and spike insertion height, respectively. The yield of corn in single crop was higher in saturation by baseline by approximately 47%, while for the intercropped, the maximum yield was obtained at saturation 65%. The Marandu grass intercropped did not interfere with corn productivity. Corn did not respond to the application of lime in the same year of cultivation. The base saturations that resulted in higher yields were close to 50 and 65% for solecropped and intercropped cultivars, respectively.