TITLE:
Morphological and Phenological Attributes of Maize Affected by Different Tillage Practices and Varied Sowing Methods
AUTHORS:
Shakeel A. Anjum, Ehsanullah , Umair Ashraf, Mohsin Tanveer, Rafi Qamar, Imran Khan
KEYWORDS:
Maize, Growth, Tillage, Sowing Methods
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.11,
May
21,
2014
ABSTRACT:
To check the
performance of maize under different tillage practices and varied sowing methods,
an experiment was conducted at Agronomic Research Area, University of
Agriculture, Faisalabad. The experiment was carried out in a randomized
complete block design (RCBD) with split plot arrangement with three
replications. Different tillage practices viz,
conventional tillage, minimum tillage and deep tillage were kept in main plots
while sowing methods viz, flat
sowing, ridge sowing and bed sowing were allocated to subplots. The maize hybrid “Pioneer-32T16” was sown
on 24th February, 2012. Data pertaining to morphological and phenological
attributes of maize showed that tillage practices and sowing methods had a significant effect on
Germination count·m-2 (7.8), leaf area per plant (5010 cm2),
leaf area index (4.87), crop growth rate (20.69 g·m-2·d-1),
plant height (213.04 cm), number of leaves per plant (11.89), days to 50%
tasseling (72.44) and days to 50% silking (73.77). Economically, maize sown on
ridges under deep tillage gave maximum net income of Rs. 85162 ha-1 while minimum net income of Rs. 56984 ha-1 was found where flat sowing
was adopted under minimum tillage system and also more BCR of 1.70 was recorded
in ridge sown maize under deep tillage.