How do cotton light interception and carbohydrate partitioning respond to cropping systems including monoculture, intercropping with wheat, and direct-seeding after wheat?

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0217243
• Publication Date: 2019-05-20T17:33:18Z
• Authors: Xiaoyu Zhi; Yingchun Han; Fangfang Xing; Yaping Lei; Guoping Wang; Lu Feng; Beifang Yang; Zhanbiao Wang; Xiaofei Li; Shiwu Xiong; Zhengyi Fan; Yabing Li
• Keywords: Interception; Monoculture; Intercropping; Fiber crop; Cropping system

Different cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)-wheat (Triticum aestivum) planting patterns are widely applied in the Yellow River Valley of China, and crop yield mainly depends on light interception. However, little information is available how canopy capturing distribution affected by patterns. Hence, field experiments were conducted 2016 2017 to study response interception, square boll distribution, leaf area index (LAI) biomass accumulation three patterns: a monoculture (CM, planted 15 May) system, cotton/wheat relay intercropping (CWI, which rows wheat intercropped with one row cotton, system was directly seeded after (CWD, June). The following results obtained: 1) greater capture capacity observed for plants CM CWI compared CWD, interception 22.4% 51.4% than that respectively, at 30 days sowing (DAS) 2016; 2) more bolls occurred first sympodial position (SP) other SPs CM; 3) based LAI accumulation, growth rate greatest followed CWI; 4) produced significantly yields did two treatments because it yielded weight. Information characteristics development different would be helpful understanding facilitate improvement productivity.