EFFECT OF IRRIGATION, NITROGEN AND ORGANIC FERTILIZATION ON SOIL WATER RELATIONSHIPS OF ZEA MAIZE CROP

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at El-Roba village, Baltim, Kafr El- Sheikh Governorate, Egypt during two consecutive growing summer seasons 2004 and 2005 to study the effect of irrigation regimes, organic manure and source and levels of nitrogen fertilizers on the soil water relationships of zea maizeyield and its nutrient contents. The obtained results could be summarized as follows: The highest values of grain yield in the two seasons, were obtained from zea maize plants irrigated at 1.3 evaporation pan coefficient (ETp), fertilized with 10 m3chicken manure fed.-1 and fertilized with urea at 160 kg N fed.-1. The highest values of water consumptive use (WCU) by zea maize plants were (59.88 and 59.87 cm WC fed.-1) resulted from the irrigation at I.3 ETp in the two seasons, respectively. While, the lowest values (43.2 and 42.69 cm WC fed.-1) obtained from irrigation at 0.7 ETp in 2004 and 2005 seasons, respectively. The soil moisture extraction pattern as a percentage of WCU from four soil layers (0-15, 15-30, 30-45 and 45-60 cm) were (49.74, 42.33, 6.93 and 0 % ), (38.52, 36.03 25.45, and 0 %) and (29.56, 40.16, 30.28 and 0 %) in the 1st season with irrigation at 1.3, 1 and 0.7 ETp, respectively, while, these values in the 2nd season were (48.81, 43.21, 7.98 and 0 %), (37.44, 36.56, 26.00 and 0%) and (30.01, 40.45 , 29.54 and 0 %) from the same layers, obtained with irrigation at 1.3, 1 and 0.7 ETp respectively. The highest values of WUE by zea maize plants (2.044 and 2.108 kg grains m-3 water consumed) in 2004 and 2005 seasons, respectively, resulted from zea maize plants irrigated at 0.7 ETp, fertilized at 10 m3 chicken manure fed.-1 and fertilized with urea at 160 kg N fed.-1. While, the lowest values (0.829 and 0.769 kg grains m-3 WC) obtained from zea maize plants irrigated at 1.3 ETp, had not fertilized neither organic manure nor mineral N fertilizers in both seasons, respectively. From these results, it could be concluded that with infrequency of water irrigation, the irrigation of zea maize performable at 0.7 evaporation pan coefficient with increasing organic fertilization, where, that realized the highest water use efficiency.