Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

Planting of various crops in intercropping may change the amount of nutrients uptake by plants because of morphological and physiological differences in roots. In order to investigate the metal micronutrients uptake of the crops in cereals-legume intercropping a field experiment was performed in 2014-2015 in the College of Agriculture of Darab, Shiraz University. Treatments included 10 monoculture (wheat, barley, triticale, pea and bean with and without weeds) and 6 intercropping (wheat + pea, wheat + faba bean, barley + pea, barley + faba bean, triticale + pea and triticale + faba bean with weeds) which laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates. Results showed that the treatments had a significant effect on the uptake of Fe, Zn, Cu and Mn by plants so that the highest content of Fe, Zn, Cu and Mn in cereals was obtained in weed-free monoculture triticale (353.2 ppm), barley+faba bean intercropping (20.18 ppm), wheat+faba bean intercropping (23.59 ppm) and weed-free wheat monoculture (28.22 ppm). The highest content of Fe, Zn, Cu and Mn in legumes was obtained in wheat+faba bean intercropping (673.1 ppm), barley+pea intercropping (26.24 ppm), triticale+faba bean intercropping (28.33 ppm) and weed-free faba bean monoculture (32.26 ppm). The ranking of micronutrients uptake by crops and weeds was Fe˃Mn˃Zn.

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