Water limited stress at jointing stage on fresh waxy maize yield and its interactions with plant density under field conditions

• Published in: Desalination and water treatment 2020-06, Vol.188, p.406-414
• Main Authors: Zhang, Weiqiang, Wang, Hui, Pei, Zhichao, Sun, Pingdong, Wei, Jihui, Shi, Biao, Zheng, Hongjian, Xu, Lina, Wu, Lifeng, Guan, Yuan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ear length; Plant height and ear height; Water limited stress; Waxy maize; Yield components
• ISSN: 1944-3986; 1944-3986
• DOI: 10.5004/dwt.2020.25294

Background Limited research on waxy maize yield and commercial value in response to water-limited (WL) stress and its interactions with plant density (PD) in the field. Methods: in this study, we examined the effects on two water treatments the water-limited group, and the well-watered (WW) group at one location (Fangshan, China) for fresh waxy maize hybrid (JKN 2000), and three plant densities (3.75, 5.25, and 6.75 plants m–2) in 2017 and 2018 using a block design split randomly in the field. Results: fresh waxy maize ear yield, grain yield, and yield components were affected for all treatments after WL stress lasted more than 9 d at the jointing stage. Compared with the WW treatment, WL treatment significantly decreased the fresh ear yield by 4.95%, due to decreasing ear length in waxy maize. In contrast, fresh grain yield significantly reduced by 3.75%, largely because of decreasing kernel weight and numbers per ear. The optimal PD of fresh ear yield was 6.75 plants m–2. Conclusions: across all plant densities, WW treatment significantly increased the ear length distribution percentage by 19.19%, which effectively expand the commercial value of fresh ears of waxy maize. We concluded that waxy maize yield and commercial value of single-ear could be enhanced by the application of WW treatment at the jointing stage under field conditions.