Competition between castor (Ricinus communis L.) and peanuts

Abstract

Peanuts are commonly sown in sugarcane renewal areas, which is why the crop started to inherit the same weed weeds as sugarcane, among them, Ricinus communis, popularly known as castor. Due to the lack of information on the impact of this species, the objective was to evaluate castor bean densities in competition with the peanut cultivar 'IAC OL3', aiming to determine the interference of this weed in the interception of photosynthetically active radiation, and consequently, in the development of plants and crop productivity. The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design, with 5 replications. Six treatments were carried out, which consisted of the castor densities (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 plants / m2) in competition with the peanut cultivar 'IAC OL3'. During the reproductive stages (R1-R8), interception assessments of photosynthetically active radiation were performed. At 130 days after sowing (end of the experiment), the dry mass of weeds and peanuts was determined, and the pods and seeds were harvested, extrapolating the data to kg / ha. Then, the data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance by the F test, and the means compared by the Tukey test at the level of 5% probability. Based on the results obtained, it was found that castor bean in the density of one or more plants / m2 reduces, on average, 35% of the interception of photosynthetically active radiation, 20% of vegetative mass and can cause losses above 60% of productivity of peanut pods and seeds.