Abstract
The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of the yield and morphological components of the maize crop according to different levels of defoliation in the phenological stages of the crop. The experimental design was a randomized block with 7 treatments and 4 replicates. The treatments were: control without defoliation (SD), removal of two leaves (2L-V4) and four leaves (4L-V4) in the V4 stage , removal of the leaves of the lower third (LT-VT), removal of the middle third (MT-VT), removal of the upper third (UT-VT) and total removal (SF-VT) of the leaves in the VT stage. Plant height and spike insertion, number of grains, number of rows, grains per rows, one thousand grain mass and yield were assessed. Plants with total leaf removal had the lowest rates in all aspects evaluated. The number of rows, kernels per row and kernel per spike showed little or no variation in the treatments with partial defoliation. The treatments with removal at the middle and upper third had the lowest values for the analyzed variables when compared to the plants with partial defoliation. The results of this work indicate that the defoliation process can damage the corn yield performance.
Highlights
Corn (Zea mays L.), is one of the most cultivated crops in the world, making it the second most produced grain on the planet
The leaf area grows until reaching a maximum, where it remains for a certain time and with the senescence of the older leaves begins to decline in the more advanced stages of the development of the plants
The decrease in leaf area occurs due to damage caused to the leaves of maize plants
Summary
Corn (Zea mays L.), is one of the most cultivated crops in the world, making it the second most produced grain on the planet. World production of corn in the 2015/2016 crop was of 959 million tons, with a production outlook for the 2016/2017 crop of 1.03 billion tons In this context, Brazil is the third largest producer of the grain, with 84 million tons (Fiesp, 2016). The amount of leaf area of a crop defines its photosynthetic potential and this variable depends on the size, number and stage of development of the plants. The decrease in leaf area occurs due to damage caused to the leaves of maize plants. These damages may be related to drastic climatic phenomena, such as the occurrence of frost and hail (Lima, 2010). In order to measure foliar damages caused by several factors that could cause crop damage, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of maize crop productivity and morphological components according to different levels of defoliation in the phenological stages of culture
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