Mixed culture

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Mixed cultivation of coffee and tomatoes in Colombia

The mixed culture (more rarely: mixed cultivation and mixed crop cultivation ) is the ecologically and economically justified and man-made simultaneous growth of several crop species on the same area. It is used in horticulture , agriculture and private gardens . Mixed culture should avoid the disadvantages of monocultures in the correct composition . Outside of plant cultivation , a mixture of different plants is called a plant community .

Variants of mixed culture

  • Plant society: A plant society describes a specific, typical species composition ( biocenosis ) of plants at a location. The doctrine of the socialization of plants is also known as plant sociology .
  • Mixed culture in general: Mixed culture is used most often in organic farming and especially in the Demeter variant . It is also very common in the home garden.
  • Floor culture: In floor cultures , tall species are combined with shade-tolerant small-grown species in such a way that their above-ground profiles use the space evenly.
  • Edge and intermediate planting: 2–3 rows of maize or sunflowers at greater intervals in and on the edge of the field prevent excessive wind influences on the crop or serve as a privacy screen.
  • Undersown: In viticulture , the soil is not kept bare, but sown with grass mixtures. In the cabbage and leek cultivation, attempts were made to reduce the thrips infestation with clover seeds . Undersown crops also led to reduced pest pressure when cultivating strawberries in tunnels.
  • Breeding: In plant breeding , different genotypes of a species are grown in order to reduce the problem of different flowering times in the production of breeding material or to produce hybrid seeds by combining different genotypes. By adding population seeds to hybrid seeds , pollination in grain production (e.g. rye ) is ensured.
  • Intermediate culture: The intermediate culture is the time-limited joint cultivation of useful plants. Two to three crops are sown and planted one after the other. It is also harvested on different dates. In France this is called entre-culture . Intercropping can also be planting in between with the same useful plant. The only commercially used intermediate culture here today is the planting of tomatoes in an existing tomato culture when the last fruits are harvested from this (not a real mixed culture).

evaluation

Advantages:

  • The mass spread of pests and diseases, which is a problem particularly in monocultures, is made more difficult by planting mixed cultures, and a total loss of the harvest is avoided. Depending on the type of cultivation, row cultivation, mixture within the row, or direct mixed sowing, the migration of the pests is already made more difficult, since the next suitable plant does not root directly next to it, but other plants in between block the way.
  • If the smells ( fragrances ) are mixed by using a suitable partner plant, pests are not even attracted or confused.
  • The root excretions of some plants can also repel pests and thus support their neighboring plants.
  • Beneficial insects and pests develop side by side at the same time. Certain crops can possibly repel pests on susceptible plants or “lure them away” as catching plants.
  • More even and better utilization of the nutrients in the soil, as the built-up area is always overgrown and the different plants require different nutrients. This means that there is no harmful oversupply of nutrients. Plants for which an annual crop rotation is not possible (trees, bushes or other perennial cultures) are supplied with nutrients and protection by good partners.
  • Erosion protection depending on the combination, the soil is constantly protected by the constant vegetation.
  • Permanent shading ensures that the moisture is better bound in the earth and the soil does not harden due to excessive solar radiation.
  • Larger plants such as corn, sunflowers, (berry) bushes can serve as wind protection.
  • Often plants of one kind are planted mixed in different varieties. This is common with colorful salads (red and green lollo, red and green oak leaf, red and green lettuce) in order to be able to put together mixed boxes with little effort.
  • Combination of the same species for crossing.
  • In gardening and landscaping, mixed cultures, actually plant communities, are consciously created when creating gardens and parks. This ensures that plants match each other in terms of growth and location. At the same time, a choice of color is also possible and the flowering phases can be coordinated over the course of the year: a garden in which everything blooms orange, in which something blooms again and again, or play of colors with grasses.
  • In cereal cultivation, different batch partners can react differently to weather conditions during the growing season and thus increase the certainty that the overall batch will succeed.

Disadvantage:

  • In commercial cultivation, harvesting is usually more difficult, and other crops can sometimes be damaged during harvest. When harvesting radishes z. B. the lettuce to be harvested later contaminated by falling earth.
  • It is not always possible to determine the date of sowing and planting for an optimal harvest time.
  • Not all useful plants can be combined because they hinder each other through proliferating growth or their size ( competition ).
  • Some plants also have a damaging effect on the other plants through their root excretion and other effects. This is known, for example, from wormwood and guayule bush .
  • Individual crops also attract pests and thus into the mixed culture. If these plants are harvested, some of the pests will spread to otherwise unaffected plants and damage them.
  • In many cases, the benefits are not particularly pronounced, and the measures for mixed cultivation were often the result of purely theoretical considerations; the potential for effects is often not empirically proven.

Basic considerations for combining crops

Carrots and onions are often grown side by side
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  • Mixed crops of crops from the same family do not make sense because they are partially attacked by the same pests and diseases.
  • In older literature it is recommended to plant shallow roots together with tap roots (deep roots ). Both take up hardly any space and nutrients. Some have the peculiarity of keeping the pests away from the neighbor, for example onions and carrots.

Research history

The idea of ​​mixed culture arose together with the allotment garden , as there is a problem of the very limited area. In a publication by the North Rhine-Westphalia State Association of Horticultural Associations from 1948 there is also a reference to “harmony in the garden space”. Ecological approaches can only be found in the more recent literature from the 1970s.

Cultivation combinations

advantageous:

  • Colorful salads of different varieties in individual rows on the same bed for a better harvest of mixed boxes.
  • Onions together with carrots,
  • Cabbage or corn together with beans
  • Lentils together with grain as a climbing aid
  • A mixed culture with an old tradition is the cultivation of pumpkins together with corn and beans, which is also called the " Three Sisters " or Milpa . This form of culture was particularly widespread among the Maya , but also among many other indigenous peoples on the North American continent.
  • Oats with barley. In dry years barley is favored, in wet years oats. Rule of thumb for choosing a variety: early oats, late barley.

unfavorable:

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e sister Christa Weinrich OSB: Mischkultur im Hobbygarten 2003, pp. 7–11.
  2. ^ AG Wirth: More fruit and vegetables through harmony in the garden , Verlag Fredebeul & Koenen KG, Essen 1948

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