VARIABILIDADE NA DISTRIBUIÇÃO ESPACIAL DE PLANTAS NA LINHA E RENDIMENTO DE GRÃOS DE MILHO

Abstract

The evenness of plant distribution at the sowing row is important to reach high productivities. This workwas carried out aiming to evaluate the effect of plant spatial variability in the sowing row on maize grain yield. The trialwas set in Lages, SC, during the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 growing seasons. Two row spacings (40 and 80 cm) andfive levels of plant spatial variability in the row, equivalent to 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of the variation coefficient, wereassessed. The treatment with 0% of C.V. represented an even spatial plant distribution on the sowing row. In 2009/2010,grain yield ranged from 11,500 to 12,900 kg ha-1 and decreased 83 kg ha-1 for each 10% of increase in the C.V., at theaverage of the two row spacings. In 2010/2011, grain yield varied from 15,000 to 16,600 kg ha-1 and decreased 64 kgha-1 for each 10% of increment in the C.V. using 40 cm inter-row spacing. In both growing seasons, the decrease in grainyield with increasing irregularity of the spatial distribution of plants in the planting row was caused by the reduction inthe number of grains produced per m-2.

Keywords

• Zea mays
• plant arrangement
• stand quality
• productivity.