Effects of Corn Intercropping with Soybean/Peanut/Millet on the Biomass and Yield of Corn under Fertilizer Reduction

Corn (<i>Zea mays</i> L.) is one of the key grain crops in China. In fields, the two crops of soybean (<i>Glycine max</i> L.) and peanut (<i>Arachis hypogaea</i> L.), which have nitrogen-fixing capacity (NFC), are generally used to intercrop with corn to improve plant physiology and production ability of corn even under fertilizer reduction. To explore a more scientific and reasonable way to plant corn, and simultaneously reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the impacts of corn intercropping with two NFC crops (including soybean and peanut) and the a non-NFC crop (i.e., millet (<i>Setaria italica</i>)) through five planting patterns, including three intercropping patterns (2 corn rows to 2, 3, and 4 NFC-crop rows or 2, 4, and 6 millet rows) and two sole crop patterns of corn and soybean, peanut, or millet under normal (600 kg/ha) and reduced (375 kg/ha) levels of NPK (N:P₂O₅:K₂O = 15:15:15) fertilization levels on the activity of N-metabolism-related enzymes in corn rhizosphere soil and corn leaves, and plant biomass and yield of corn were researched in this study. The results showed that fertilizer reduction significantly decreased the plant biomass and grain yield of the sole crop corn. The intercropping type and planting pattern both had significant effects on the activities of N-metabolism-related enzyme of soil alkaline protease (S-ALPT), and glutamine oxoglutarate aminotransferase (GOGAT), glutamate synthetase (GS), and nitrate reductase (NR) in the leaves of corn plants. The intercropping type of corn with soybean through the planting pattern of 2 corn rows to 4 soybean rows significantly improved the activities of N-metabolism-related enzymes in soil and corn leaves even under the fertilizer reduction. The intercropping pattern of corn-soybean was the most beneficial to increase the total nitrogen content in soil and corn leaves. In addition, the intercropping significantly increased the soil microbial diversity under normal fertilizer. Furthermore, fertilizer reduction significantly increased soil microbial diversity of the corn sole crop. Therefore, it is concluded that for corn in intercropping systems, the best and the worst companion crop were, respectively, soybean and millet.