Abstract: Using peanut cultivar Huayu 25 and cotton cultivar Liaomian 19 as experimental material, we examined the effects of different intercropping patterns on physiological characteristics of peanut in later growth stage, yield and economic benefit, based on an experiment with five treatments, including intercropping modes of 4 rows peanut and 4 rows cotton (H₄M₄), 6 rows peanut and 4 rows cotton (H₆M₄), 4 rows peanut and 4 rows cotton (H₄M₂), sole peanut (DH) and sole cotton (DM). The results showed that intercropping mode increased the length of main stem and branches of peanut, but decreased green leaves number of main steam, leaf area index, and total dry matter accumulation. Among the intercropping modes, chlorophyll content, chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, root vigor, nitrate reductase activity under H₆M₄ and H₄M₂ were significantly higher than that under H₄M₄, as well as higher superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase activity and decreased malondialdehyde content. Intercropping significantly reduced peanut and cotton yields, but enhanced the gross economic output value. The yield reduction of H₆M₄ was the lowest and the economic output was the highest among all the intercropping modes. In addition, the land equivalent ratio of H₆M₄ was greater than 1, indicating the obvious advantage of intercropping. Our results indicated that appropriate reduction of the ratio of cotton under the peanut-cotton intercropping systems could strengthen root vigor and increased nitrate reductase activity, promote nutrient absorption capacity, reduce senescence, and increase the economic output.

Key words: peanut-cotton intercropping, physiological characteristic, antioxidant system, yield, economic benefit