EFFECT OF INTERCROPPING SUNFLOWER WITH PEANUT UNDER DIFFERENT RATES OF NITROGEN FERTILIZATION ON YIELD COMPONENTS OF BOTH CROPS.

Two field experiments were carried out at Agricultural Research Stations in Ismailia Governorate during 2005 and 2006 seasons to study the effect of six intercropping patterns ,sunflower was planted on other side of the second ridge of peanut at 20, 40 and 60  cm apart between hills and thinned  on one , two , and three plants / hill respectively  to give  50 % of its pure stand , and on the third ridge of peanut at 20 , 40 and 60 cm a part between hills respectively and thinned on one , two and three plants / hill to give 33 % of its pure stand   and three  nitrogen fertilizer levels  (40 ,50 , and 60 kg N / fed ) on growth , yield and yield components and seed oil % of peanut and sunflower . A split – plot design was used with three replications. The main obvious results of this study can be summarized as follows.
Peanut:
The results revealed that plant height, number and weight of pods /plant and pods yield / fed of peanut were significantly affected by different intercropping patterns in both seasons, whereas number of branches / plant ,shilling %  and seed oil % were not significantly affected in both seasons; and weight of 100 seeds were significantly affected in the second season only. Intercropping patterns 100 % peanut +33 % sunflower gave the highest value for yield of peanut in both seasons.
All studied characters of peanut were significantly affected by increasing N fertilizer levels from 40 to 50 up to 60 kg N / fed in both seasons, except numbers of branches/ plant were not significantly affected in the first season.
Interaction between intercropping patterns and N fertilizer levels significantly affected on number of pods / plant and weight of seeds / plant in both seasons, weight of pods / plant and pods yield/ fed in the second season.
Sunflower:
           All studied characters of sunflower were significantly affected by intercropping patterns in both seasons, except numbers of leaves / plant and seed oil% were not significantly in both seasons, whereas stem diameter was significantly affected in the first season only. Intercropping pattern 100 % peanut + 50 % sunflower gave the highest value for yield of sunflower in both seasons.
         Growth, yield and yield components of sunflower as well as seed oil% were significantly affected by increasing N fertilizer levels from 40 to 50 up to 60 kg N / fed in both seasons, except number of leaves / plant was not significantly affected.
       Interaction between intercropping patterns and N fertilizer levels significantly affected number of seeds / head, seed yield /fed and oil % in both seasons and head diameter in the second season only.
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         Results revealed also that intercropping pattern of 100 % peanut +50 % sunflower (planting sunflower on the second ridge of peanut at 20 cm apart between hills and thinned on one plant / hill) recorded the highest values for Land Equivalent Ratio (LER), which reached 1.48 and 1.57 in the first and second seasons, respectively, Relative Crowding Coefficient (RCC) achieved advantageous by intercropping pattern in both seasons. Sunflower crop was the dominant in all intercropping patterns and peanut was the dominated in both seasons.
       Intercropping patterns 100 % peanut + 50 % sunflower on the second ridge at 20 cm between hills and thinned on one plant/ hill achieved the highest value for total income in both seasons  being  28.85 and 33.03 % compared to peanut alone in the first and second seasons , respectively .