Effect of Nitrogen Source and Rates on Grain Yield, Morphological and Physiological Traits of some Maize Hybrids

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out in old newly reclaimed calcareous soils at Nubaria Agricultural Research Station, during 2015 and 2016 summer seasons. The aim of the investigation was to study the effect of nitrogen fertilizer sources (solid and gaseous) under different nitrogen rates (80, 100, 120 and 140 kg N fed-1) on yield, yield components, NPK concentrations and N use efficiency for some maize hybrids (SC 131, SC 168 and SC 176). Experimental design was strip-split plot design with four replications where nitrogen sources distribute in the vertical-plots while, nitrogen rates assigned to the horizontal-plots within N sources. Hybrids were randomly distributed in the sub-plots. Injection ammonia gas gave the lower significant averages value of number days from planting to 50% tasseling (DTT) and number of days from planting to 50% silking (DTS), but increased significantly in plant height (PHT), leaf area index (LAI), chlorophyll content (CHL), No. of ears per plot (EAR), grain yield (GY) and ear length (EL) in the two successive seasons as compared to those obtained with ammonium nitrate (AN) form. Results revealed that the application of AA was associated with significantly higher in kernel per row (KPR) and weight of 100-grains (KWT) than AN. No significant difference between the nitrogen sources was found in ear diameter (CD) in both seasons. Increasing N rates from 80 to 140 kg fed-1 caused a significant increase in DTT, DTS and EAR traits in 2016 only. However, increasing N rate significantly effect on PHT, LAI, CHL, GY, EL, KPR and KWT traits. Significant differences were found among maize single crosses for all tested growth characters and grain yield. Single cross 176 was the earliest hybrid while SC 168 was the latest concerning DTT and DTS in both seasons. Single cross 131 gave the highest value in GY, while SC 176 was the lowest value. Anhydrous ammonia (AA) had higher GY productive under all NR than AN with linear positive significant increase during the growing season of 2015. The highest grain yield was 36.9 ard fed-1 under 140 kg N fed-1 of AA while the lowest value was 24.0 ard fed-1 for AN at 80 kg N fed-1. Single cross 131 had the highest significant value in grain yield under AA, while SC 176 was the lowest value under AN fertilizer. Concentration of grain nitrogen (N conc), phosphorus (P conc), potassium (K conc), their uptake (NPK uptake) and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) were affected positively by the sources of N fertilizers applied in the two successive seasons. Ammonia gas (AA) enhanced all nutritional parameters comparing with AN. Three way interactions of the tested NS, NR and maize HB agreed with all previous results of main. In general SC 131 followed by SC 168 respond efficiently more than SC 176 to AA comparing with AN under all four N rates up to 140 kg N fed-1. Regression coefficient between grain yield and the nineteen variables showed that there was a highly significant relation between grain yield and ten of the independent variables including (N uptake, N concentrati...

Effect of Irrigation Intervals on Growth, Productivity and Quality of Some Yellow Maize Genotypes

“…This is to be expected since such genotype recorded the highest values of stem and total dry weight/ plant as recorded in Table 3. These results were coincided by those obtained by Ali (2016), Balbaa & Awad (2018), Darwich (2018) and Mostafa (2018) who reported that yellow maize genotype namely S.C 168 was superior to other tested genotypes in grain yield/ fed.…”

“…However, no significant variations were detected in oil % among all tested genotypes in both seasons. The differences among some yellow maize genotypes were also previously reported by many investigators such as Balbaa & Awad (2018) and Mostafa (2018) for protein percentage as well as Mreer & Mohamad (2017) for oil yield/ unit area.…”

“…The superiority of T.W.C 368 genotype in grain weight/ ear and its components may be due to the increment in total dry matter accumulation as resultants of the increase of number of leaves and leaf area/ plant as previously discussed in Table 3 as well as RWC in the leaves as presented in Table 4. The varietal differences among some yellow maize genotypes were obtained also by other researchers such as Ali (2016) and Balbaa & Awad (2018) for ear length and diameter, Gomaa et al (2017) for plant height and no. of grains/ ear and Yasin (2016) and Fathy et al (2019) for 100 grain weight and grain weight/ ear.…”

Investigating the Impacts of Airborne Dust on Herbicide Performance on Redroot Pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus)

“…Moreover, dust accumulation can also reduce the plant's retention and uptake of the herbicide 13,25 . The TCC indicates the plant's photosynthetic activity 53 and can be affected by the herbicide's mode of action 54 .…”

“…Current studies [7][8][9] show that adverse environmental conditions, such as drought and extreme heat, caused by climate change, can indirectly lead to other environmental problems, e.g., the dispersal of airborne dust to different parts of the world. In recent years, the issue of dust has become a central concern in Middle Eastern countries, including Iran and Iraq [10][11][12][13] .…”