Agricultural management practices for the cultivation of lettuce and jilo

Crop intercropping is a technique designed to optimize the use of production areas, diversify crops, and mitigate agricultural risks. This study aimed to evaluate the agronomic performance of lettuce and jilo intercropping fertilized with bovine manure in soil covered with mulch. The treatments consisted of lettuce and jilo plants grown either as monocrops or intercropped, with and without mulch, and in the absence or presence of bovine manure fertilization (40 t ha⁻¹). The experiment was arranged in a randomized block design with three replicates. The lettuce cultivar Veneranda and the jilo cultivar Morro Grande Verde Escuro were used. For lettuce, the evaluated parameters included total fresh mass (g plant⁻¹), commercial shoot mass (g plant⁻¹), commercial index, and yield (g m⁻²). For jilo, plant height (cm plant⁻¹), stem diameter (mm plant⁻¹), number of leaves per plant (leaves plant⁻¹), number of fruits per plant (fruits plant⁻¹), average fruit mass (g fruit⁻¹), production per plant (kg plant⁻¹), and yield (t ha⁻¹) were assessed. Soil temperature was recorded weekly. Bovine manure application significantly stimulated jilo growth and increased crop yields by 52.66% for lettuce and 29.02% for jilo. Soil mulching with plant residues reduced soil temperature by 16.59% in the intercropping system of lettuce and jilo. Furthermore, intercropping lettuce with jilo did not adversely affect the agronomic performance of either crop.