Resumo

BARRIOS, Renny; FARINAS, José; DIAZ, Asdrúbal  e  BARRETO, Federico. Evaluation of 11 leguminous accessions as cover crop in oil palm plantations in Monagas State, Venezuela. Bioagro [online]. 2004, vol.16, n.2, pp.113-119. ISSN 1316-3361.

Leguminous species as cover crops in oil palm allows obtaining benefits like weed control, symbiotic nitrogen fixation, increase of soil organic matter content and reduction of erosion. Knowledge about adaptation and behavior of leguminous cover crops in oil palm is scarce in Venezuela. Most of the cropped surface is covered with tropical kudzú (Pueraria phaseoloides), which due to its voluble growing habit, climbs over the oil palm causing increases on maintenance costs. The objective of this work was to evaluate the adaptation of 11 accessions of four species of leguminous cover crops (Arachis pintoi, Centrosema rotundifolium, Desmodium ovalifolium and Stylosanthes capitata) to the conditions of commercial plantations of oil palm in Monagas State, Venezuela. Growth of all accessions was influenced by levels of soil moisture. D. ovalifolium (CIAT 13110 and CIAT 23665) and C. rotundifolium (CIAT 5260) were the accesions that showed the highest covering index in the first stages of growth, while D. ovalifolium showed the highest competitive ability to spread and displace gradually the population of native weeds.

Palavras-chave : Weed control; nitrogen fixation; CIAT; adaptation.