Published in AgroLife Scientific Journal, Volume 6, Number 2
Written by Marin DUMBRAVĂ, Viorel ION, Adrian Gheorghe BĂȘA, Lenuţa Iuliana EPURE
The yielding capacity is given for each maize hybrid by its genetics, but it is also influenced by the growth conditions. As drought is the main yield constraints especially in South Romania, which is the most important Romanian growing area for maize, it is of great importance for farmers but also for scientists to better understand the maize plant responses to drought under different technological conditions. The preceding crop, nitrogen rate and row spacing represent crop technology elements that the maize grower can manipulate according to his production objective, this being even more of interest in drought conditions. From this perspective, the aim of this paper is to present the results regarding the yield components and the grain yield at maize under drought and different crop technology conditions (two preceding crops, two row spacing and four nitrogen rates) in the specific growing conditions from South Romania. In this respect, a field experiment was performed in 2016 in South Romania (44029’ N latitude and 26015’ E longitude), under rainfed conditions. Five maize hybrids were studied under two preceding crops (sunflower and maize), two row spacing (70 and 50 cm) and four nitrogen rates (0 kg.ha-1; 50 kg.ha-1; 100 kg.ha-1; 50+50 kg.ha-1). Under the drought conditions of 2016, application of nitrogen and increasing of nitrogen rate from 50 to 100 kg.ha-1 increased the grain yield and values of the yield components (except TGW). Generally, grain yield and yielding components (except TGW) registered higher values at row spacing of 50 cm when the preceding crop was maize and at row spacing of 70 cm when the preceding crop was sunflower. Yielding components (except TGW) registered higher values in the case of maize as preceding crop, while TGW and grain yield registered higher values when sunflower was the preceding crop.
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