AGROECOLOGICAL CONTROL OF WEEDS IN COCONUT PLANTATIONS (COCOS NUCIFERA L.) THROUGH THE USE OF GREEN FERTILIZERS

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the use of green manures on weed control in coconut plantations of the Yellow Malay Dwarf variety. The study was carried out in a 19-year-old Malayan Yellow Dwarf coconut plantation with an 8 m staggered topological design and under rainfed conditions. It is located in the Chetumal Experimental Field, Quintana Roo, between parallel 18° 30' of LN and meridian 88° 29' of LW, under the influence of a warm sub humid climate, where an annual precipitation of 1,300 mm and a temperature average annual temperature of 26 °C. In the trial, six treatments were evaluated: coconut without cover, as a control treatment (T1) coconut + Gliricidia sepium (T2) coconut + Leucaena leucocephala (T3), coconut + Canavalia ensiformis (T4) coconut + Tithonia diversifolia (T5) and coconut + Clitoria ternatea (T6). The distribution of treatments was carried out using a completely randomized block design, with five repetitions. The variables evaluated werepercentage cover and weed population (# of plants/m2). Analysis of variance was performed for the variables studied and Tukey's test to determine the multiple difference of means (P<0.05). The SAS 9.3 statistical package was used to manage the data. You can see the rapid growth and greater coverage at 12 weeks of age, presented by the legumes Clitoria ternatea and Canavalia ensiformis, as well as the Asteraceae Tithonia diversifolia (95, 84 and 93% respectively), and compared to the legumes Leucaena leucocephala and Gliricidia sepium with values​of 45 and 60%, respectively (p≤0.05). Differences (p≤0.05) were found for weed population between the studied treatments the highest number of weeds was observed in treatments 1 and 2 with values ​​of 68 and 59 (# of plants/m2), with no difference found between them (p≥0.05), but compared to treatments T3 and T4 (p≤0.05). ) that presented values ​​of 49 and 40 plants/m2 respectively.