Effects of Cotton/Sesame Intercropping Patterns on Crop Growth and Yield

[Objective] Intercropping as an intensive planting method, could increase the utilization ratio of land and resources. The study aimed to explore the advantages and disadvantages of cotton/sesame intercropping, and then find out the best planting pattern of cotton/sesame intercropping. [Method] Equidistant row monocropping cotton (Tc₁), wide narrow row monocropping cotton (Tc₂) and monocropping sesame (Ts) were used as control. We designed three intercropping patterns as follows: 1-1 pattern (cotton row spacing was 80 cm, one row of sesame was planted in the two row spacing), 2-1 pattern (cotton grown in wide-narrow-row, one row of sesame was planted in the wide row spacing), and 2-2 pattern (cotton grown in wide-narrow-row, two rows of sesame were planted in the wide row spacing). The effects of different intercropping patterns on cotton/sesame yield, yield components, leaf area index dynamic change and dry matter accumulation were investigated. The land equivalent ratio was used as an index to assess the land use efficiency. [Result] The results showed that cotton/sesame yield were significantiy affected by different intercropping patterns. However, the seed cotton yield decreased only slightly in 2-1 intercropping pattern. Two years average showed that, the seed cotton yield, plant height, boll number of per plant and boll weight in 1-1 pattern were reduced by 17.3%, 7.9%, 19.7% and 7.9% compared with Tc₁, respectively. In the treatment of 2-2 model, which reduced by 16.4%, 5.81%, 14.8% and 6.2% in comparison with Tc_2. But in the intercropping systems, the mixed yield and comprehensive economic benefit of cotton and sesame were higher than those of cotton and sesame monoculture. The leaf area index of the group and the total amount of dry matter accumulation in unit area increased significantly under cotton/sesame intercropping systems. The land equivalent ratios in 2015 and 2016 were from 1 to 1.24 and 0.91 to 1.16, respectively. [Conclusion] Under different cotton/sesame intercropping systems, the mixed yield and total economic benefit were higher than that of monocropping cotton or sesame. The 2-1 cotton/sesame intercropping pattern occupied the most optimal production performance and easy to cultivate, which was the practicable intercropping patterns in sustainable development.