EFFECT OF INTERCROPPING SYSTEMS OF GUAR WITH SWEET SORGHUM UNDER DIFFERENT LEVELS OF POTASSIUM FERTILIZER

Two fields experiments were carried out at Shandaweel Experi-mental Research Station, Sohag governorate during 2001 and 2002 sea‌sons to study the effect of intercropping systems of sweet sorghum with guar (v. Balady); 1 : 1, 2 : 2 and 2 : 1 ridges of sweet sorghum to guar and potassium fertilizer, zero, 24 and 48 kg/ fed. The Experimental design was split-plot design of three replications. Higher values were obtained by intercropping sweet sorghum with guar for plant height, no. of nods/ plant and head height with the treat‌ments of 1 : 1, compared with pure stand which gave the lowest value. The clean stalk yields/ fed, % purity and juice yield/ fed were the high‌est with sweet sorghum in pure stand followed by 2 : 2 system; while the lowest one was recorded with 1 : 1 treatment. Guar plant height and total fresh yield/ fed recorded the highest values under pure stand cultivation, but the intercropping system of 2 :2 gave higher values for no. of tillers and leaf area/ plant. The lowest val‌ues were recorded with guar pure stand. The increase of k fertilizer up to 48 kg/ fed increased all the growth characteristics. Moreover, the stalk yield, juice yield/ fed., % su‌crose, % Brix and % purity markedly increased by increasing k fertilizer level. Increasing k fertilizer had significant effect on guar plant growth and total fresh yield, except plant height. Competitive relationships indicated that higher values of Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) and Relative Crowding Coefficient (RCC) were re‌markable with the system of 2 : 2, whereas the lowest values were re‌corded with the system of 1 :1 furthermore. sweet sorghum was domi‌nant and guar was dominated. Interaction between intercropping systems and potassium fertiliz‌er (48 kg Id fed and 2 : 2 system) maximized total stalk yield and juice yield/ fed of sweet sorghum and total fresh yield of guar.