October 21, 2020
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A field study was conducted to evaluate the effect of time of intercropping melon with rice on growth and yield attributes of component crops in early and late seasons of 2003. The trial consisted of factorial combination of three sowing dates of melon and two rice varieties arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The results indicated that intercropping rice with melon significantly affected rice performance, Rice performed better as time of introducing melon delayed. Introducing melon into rice four weeks after sowing rice resulted in significantly higher number of tillers than when melon was intercropped with rice simultaneously and two weeks after sowing rice. Sowing melon two and four weeks after sowing rice resulted into significantly higher grain yield of 1,772 kg/ha and 1,872kg/ha respectively than when melon was sown simultaneously with rice (1,531kg/ha) in early season. In late season, sowing melon two weeks and four weeks after planting rice produced grain yield (1,377kg/ha and 1,567kg/ha respectively) that were significantly higher than sowing melon simultaneously with rice ((1,262kg/ha). Intercropping melon with rice significantly reduced LAI, number of branches, number of leaves, shoot dry weight, 100 seed weight and seed yield of melon in both seasons. Rice intercropped simultaneously with melon suffered from an intense competition resulting in significantly reduced LAI, tillering, number of panicles per hill and number of grains per panicle leading to reduced grain yield. It is evident from this study that intercropping melon with rice at two to four weeks after planting rice is the most appropriate time to improve yield of rice.