RESPONSE OF MAIZE VARIETIES TO PLANT DENSITY

Abstract

The study was conducted in Crop Physiology and Ecology Research Field and Laboratory, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University during the period from November 2010 to June 2011 to investigate the response of maize variety as affected by planting density. Three plant spacing (S1= 75 cm x 25 cm, S2=75 cm x 20 cm and S3=50 cm x 25 cm) and three maize varieties (V1= Pacific 984, V2=7001K and V3=PAC 555) were included as experimental treatments. The experiment was laid out in a two factors Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Result revealed that S1 (75cm x 25cm) required the maximum days to attain most of the phenological stages of maize. The duration of tasseling, cob intiation, silking, pollen shading and maturity required the highest days on S1 condition. Present study also revealed that differences in plant spacing significantly influenced TDM, LAI, LAD, CGR, RGR and NAR. Different variety also influenced the above growth parameters significantly. The results also revealed that higher plant spacing with V1 gave the highest values of all the growth parameters. Leaf dry weight, stem dry weight and ear dry weight were significantly influenced by different spacing. Dense crops (S3) gave the highest value of the above parameters. Variety also significantly influenced the above parameters. Leaf dry weight, stem dry weight and cob dry weight were highest in Sl with VI. Significantly higher plant height was recorded in plant grown in widest spacing (S1). The highest yield (5.30 t ha') and harvest index (32.74%) was found in S3 condition and the lowest yield (4.86 tha™') and harvest index (31.15%) was obtained in S1 condition while the cob length, cob diameter, number of cob plant’, number of grain rows cob", number of grains row ', number of grains cob! and 100-grain weight showed a reverse result with S1 condition. Variety also significantly influenced yield and yield attributes. The highest yield (5.97 t ha") was obtained from the maize variety Pacific 984 (V1) while the lowest yield (4.23 t ha) was found from PAC 555 (V3). The interaction between spacing and different maize variety showed a significant variation among the growth, yield and yield attributes of maize. It is indicated that S3 with V1 showed the best performance in respect of growth, yield and harvest index of maize.