MAIZE CULTIVARS RESPONSE TO VARIATION IN SPACING AND DENSITY

Abstract

Maize is the most sensitive grass to variation in plant density. Several researchers consider the genotype itself as the main determinant of plant density. The objective of this study was to verify the performance of maize cultivars submitted to different planting spacing and plant density. The genotype material used in this work is developed by the Embrapa Maize and Sorghum breeding program, some of them being commercial cultivars and others about to be released to the market. Two experiments were carried out in the area of Embrapa Maize and Sorghum, Sete Lagoas, MG. Ten maize cultivars were evaluated with two spacings (0.50 m and 0.80 m) and four densities (40,000; 52,500; 65,000 and 77,500 plants.ha-1). A split-split plot design was used, with spacing being in the plots, cultivars in the split-plots and densities in the split-split-plots. The results showed that if spacing is reduced in association with greater densities better yields may be achieved. Grain yield was not affected by spacing reduction alone. It is possible to increase grain yield by increasing plating density up to 77,500 plants ha-1.

Keywords

• Zea mays
• spatial arrangement
• planting density
• ear index
• ear average weight