Organic cultivation of mint under different amounts of hairy woodrose (Merremia aegyptia L.) and harvesting times

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the possibility of organic cultivation of mint under different amounts of hairy woodrose and harvesting times. The experimental design was randomized complete blocks with the treatments arranged in 4 x 3 factorial scheme with three replicates. The first factor consisted of four amounts of hairy woodrose (0.0, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 kg m-2 of dry beds) and the second factor, corresponded to three harvest bunches (30; 60 and 90 days after transplanting). The cultivar "Mentha piperita" was used as mint crop. The evaluated characteristics were the following: biomass height, biomass production, number of sauces, dry mass, oil content and yield. There was interaction between the factors-treatments for yield, number of bunches and oil content. The best productive performance of the mint was obtained in the amount of 1.0 kg/m2 of hairy woodrose incorporated into the soil at 60 days after mint transplanting (AMT). Hairy woodrose proved to be efficient as a green manuring in the mint crop.