| Maize/potato intercropping system can increase production and efficiency, and the underlying mechanism has been extensively studied. Previous studies mainly focused on the productivity, economic and ecological aspects of the intercropping system, but the study of intercropping maize on growth of potato was limited in number. In the study, we aims to analyze a maize and potato intercropping field experiment with two different maize-potato row ratios (2∶2 and 4∶4) and potato monoculture. The measured parameters include plant height (PH), leaf area (LA), specific leaf weight (SLW), dry matter weight, and economic yield at early flowering and harvest, indicating the potato growth advantage, yield formation and competitiveness at different growth stages. The results showed that LA, SLW, plant biomass (PBM) and tuber biomass (TBM) of first row potato neighbor maize in the 2∶2 and 4∶4 intercropping system were higher than the second row potato partition maize in the 4∶4 intercropping system and monoculture, but PH and leaf weight ratio (LWR) were not significantly different at early flowering. During harvest period, PH, LA and TBM of first row potato neighbor maize in the 2∶2 and 4∶4 intercropping system were larger than the second row potato partition maize in the 4∶4 intercropping system and monoculture, but SLW was lower than monoculture treatment. The transfer rate and contribution rate of stems biomass and leaves biomass transferred to potato tubers in the intercropping system was higher than monoculture. Space expansion of first row potato to neighbor maize in the 2∶2 and 4∶4 intercropping system was stronger than maize at early flowering, then the first row potato neighbor maize was higher than the second row potato partition maize, when at harvest the advantage of space expansion was disappear. The potato yield of first row potato neighbor maize in the 2∶2 and 4∶4 intercropping system was higher than monoculture, but the potato yield performance of second row potato partition maize in the 4∶4 intercropping system was inconsistent between 2 years. These findings suggest that intercropping advantage of leaf area, biomass and yield setting at early stage resulted in higher potato yield. |