Germination and seedling emergence are the critical stages in the plant life cycle. Insufficient seedling emergence and inappropriate stand establishment are the main constraints in the production of crops which receiving less rainfall. Farmers do not have sufficient resources to meet the requirement of seedbed preparation for sowing and they are at more risk as compared to progressive farmers. On the other hand good establishment increases competitiveness against weeds, increases tolerance to drought period, increase yield and avoids the time consuming need for re-sowing that is costly too. It is well accepted fact that priming improves germination, reduces seedling emergence time and improves stand establishment. A method to improve the rate and uniformity of germination is the priming or physiological advancement of the seed lot. The general purpose of seed priming is to partially hydrate the seed to a point where germination processes are begun, but they would exhibit rapid germination when re-imbibed under normal or stress conditions. A lot of work has been done on seed priming and results of these studies indicate well the importance of priming to get a good crop stand in many crops of tropical region such as rice, maize, sorghum and pigeon pea.
The experiment was conducted to find out the planting method and nitrogen level for enhancing the seed yield of fodder maize (Zea mays L.). The treatment comprised of three planting methods as zero tillage (ZT), conventional tillage (CT) and bed planting (BP) and four nitrogen levels (0, 100, 125 and 150 kg N/ha). Successive increase of 25kg N/ ha has significantly increased the seed and stover yield of maize with which significantly higher values of plant height, stover yield and shelling percentage was obtained.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.