EFEITO DAS PLANTAS DE COBERTURA DE VERÃO NO RENDIMENTO DE CEBOLA EM CULTIVO MÍNIMO NAS CONDIÇÕES EDAFOCLIMÁTICAS DE LONTRAS-SC.

The onion has great economic importance, since it is among the five most produced vegetables in Brazil. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of summer cover crops or corn cultivation on onion yield in minimum cultivation system under edaphoclimatic conditions in Lontras-SC. The following summer crops in the 2019/2020 crop were evaluated in the off-season of the onion crop: sunn hemp; consortium of millet; millet+sun hemp; corn for grain production. Summer crops were cultivated from December 2019 to March/April 2020 without fertilizer application, managing them with mowing at the end of their cycle. The onion crop was cultivated between July and November 2020. The straw of the predecessor crops, corn grain yield and onion yield were evaluated. The average straw mass of cover crops was 14.5 t. ha-1 and corn was 5.4 t. ha-1. The total yield of onion bulbs ranged from 22.0 to 26.6 ton-1, being lower when cultivated after corn and higher after millet. It is concluded that the use of millet as a predecessor crop allows greater total and commercial yield of onion bulbs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]