A two year study was conducted in transplanted organic romaine
lettuce that was strip intercropped with several ‘replacement’
and ‘additive’ arrangements of alyssum from May to June.
In the ‘replacement’ intercropping patterns, a standard transplant
density was maintained and various amounts of lettuce transplants
were replaced by alyssum transplants. In the ‘additive’ arrangements,
the standard lettuce density was augmented with various
amounts of alyssum transplants. The objectives were to (1) determine
the relationship been alyssum shoot biomass and flower production,
and (2) evaluate competition between the intercropped
plants by measuring their shoot biomass and lettuce nitrogen uptake.
I hypothesized that there would be more competition in the
additive than replacement arrangements because of the greater total
transplant density in the additive arrangements.