DO LIVING MULCH BASED VEGETABLE CROPPING SYSTEMS YIELD SIMILARLY TO THE SOLE ONES?

Ecological services may be exploited by use of living mulches in intercropping systems for production of vegetable crops. But may high yields be attained in intercropping systems for production of resource demanding crops such as cauliflower? In the frame of the InterVeg (Core Organic II) project, four field experiments were carried out in IT, SLO, DE and DK in order to study the effect of the living mulch introduction in cauliflower based cropping systems on crop yield and yield quality. The preliminary results, obtained after the first year project, showed yield and produces quality equal to those obtained in the sole cropping system if the system is properly managed (i.e. LM is late sown or its growth is controlled by root pruning)