Vigor of maize seeds and its effects on plant stand establishment, crop development and grain yield

Abstract

Seed quality is extremely important for agribusiness, as it can affect the stand establishment, as well as the competitive ability of the plant, affecting its yield potential. The aim of the present work was to evaluate the initial development and the production performance of the maize crop as a function of the vigor of the seed lots. The experiment consisted of 10 treatments, involving two factors: two stands (ideal number of plants and ideal number of seeds corrected by the seedling emergence test in bed); and five seed lots as a function of vigor (63, 68, 83, 87 and 99% vigor), according to the results of the cold test. The experimental design was a randomized block design, with four replications. The following parameters were determined along the crop cycle: plant height; chlorophyll and plant cover index; cycle; initial and final populations; and components of grain yield. The use of high-vigor maize seeds favors the initial development of the crop and soil cover, with a positive influence on the number of grains per ear and final population of plants in pre-harvest, in addition to reducing the cycle. High-vigor maize seeds promote gains in yield; for each increase of 1.0 percentage point in the level of seed vigor of the lot, estimated by cold test, the increase in grain production can reach 43.5 kg.ha-1.

Agronomic strategies to enhance the early vigor and yield of maize. Part I: the role of seed applied biostimulant, hybrid and starter fertilization on rhizosphere bacteria profile and diversity

“…Furthermore, an early sowing date increased the risk to meet cold and rainy period during the maize emergence and the first vegetative stages, resulting in a slow plant development, with higher risk of damping-off, insect damages and weed competition, thus reducing the beneficial effects of an early sowing. The cultivation of hybrids with a superior tolerance to low temperatures, therefore, characterized by a high early vigor, instead of ordinary one (Peter et al, 2009;Reis et al, 2022), and the application at sowing of starter fertilizers in bands close to seed furrows (Ma et al, 2015;Kaiser et al, 2016), are the main crop practices applied to limit the risk of maize slow development within the early planting times. In fact, although agricultural soils may contain large amounts of total nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), they are mainly in a form not available to the plant (Imran et al, 2013), while cool springs could further reduce plant uptake of these nutrients in the early vegetative stages, limiting crop growth rate and leaf chlorophyll content (Zhao et al, 2022).…”

Early selection for drought tolerance in popcorn based on gene effects estimated in seedlings

“…To date, the effects of water stress on trait expression in the early stages of popcorn development have not yet been studied. Therefore, understanding the genetic basis of trait performance in the seed germination and seedling development phases is important for planning breeding programs targeting the early selection of genotypes adapted to water stress ( Ju et al., 2018 ; Dwivedi et al., 2021 ; Mota et al., 2021 ; Reis et al., 2022 ). Diallel crosses provide genetic information in estimates and partitioning of the combining ability of the parents ( Mota et al., 2021 ).…”

Agronomic strategies to enhance the early vigor and yield of maize part II: the role of seed applied biostimulant, hybrid, and starter fertilization on crop performance

“…One of the agronomic strategies that has allowed maize yields to be increased in temperate growing areas, but also the qualitative and sanitary traits, is the progressive ability to anticipate the sowing period in spring, which leads to an increase in the length of the growing cycle and avoids possible heat and drought stress during the flowering or the ripening (Van Roekel and Coulter, 2011;Waqas et al, 2021). Moreover, in order to prevent the negative impact of cold and rainy periods during the first vegetative stages, which can limit the advantages of early sowing, this practice is often associated with the use of good early vigor hybrids and also practices applied during seed crop growing which support high vigor in the next generation, such as the application in bands close to the seed furrows of starter fertilizers, mainly those containing nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) (Kaiser et al, 2016;Reis et al, 2022). Since a fast and uniform plant growth plays a key role in achieving the full potential yield of maize and in promoting higher resource use efficiencies, these crop practices are adopted to efficiently limit a delay in maize development, which could reduce the benefits of early sowing, thereby significantly contributing to the profitability of the crop.…”