Figure 5.

Balance between crop N demand and N supply (∆N) during the growing period of intercropped pea (IP) or sole pea (SP) (a) and intercropped maize (IM) or sole maize (SM) (b) with two N treatments (N0, 0 kg N ha⁻¹; and N1, 225 kg N ha⁻¹ for pea and 450 kg N ha⁻¹ for maize) and three maize three maize densities (D1, 73,600 plants ha⁻¹; D2, 85,900 plants ha⁻¹; and D3, 98,200 plants ha⁻¹ for sole maize; the relative density of intercropped maize (according to the proportion of occupied area in intercropping) was 45,000, 52,500, and 60,000 plants ha⁻¹ for D1, D2, and D3, respectively). Error bars indicate standard errors of the means (n = 8 for (a), n = 12 for (b)). Dissimilar letters on bars means that are significantly different according to Fisher’s protected LSD (P ≤ 0.05).