Agronomic performance of sweet potato crop in succession to leguminous plants in monocropping and intercropped with corn

ABSTRACT This study aimed to evaluate sweet potato performance in succession to annual herbaceous leguminous plants, in monocropping or intercropped with corn, under agroecological management, under Baixada Fluminense conditions. The experimental design was randomized blocks, with five treatments and four replicates. The treatments consisted of pre-cropping with the following species: crotalaria (Crotalaria juncea) under monocropping system, crotalaria intercropped with corn (Zea mays), jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis) under monocropping system, jack bean intercropped with corn and spontaneous vegetation. The results showed that monocropped crotalaria reached the greatest dry biomass accumulation during two consecutive years of succession. In the second year, this treatment provided greater accumulated amounts of N, K and Mg in plant biomass. Growing sweet potatoes in succession to the pre-cropping of crotalaria is advantageous, as it provided an increase in vegetable productivity in the second year of succession.