Effect of reduced spacing on relationship of physiological, morphological and productive traits of corn yield

Abstract

Increasing corn grain production without devastating new forest areas is a viable alternative to controlling deforestation. However, increasing plant density in the area may alter plant morphophysiological and productive traits. The objective of this study was to characterize relationships between physiological, morphological and yield traits of corn plants, as well as the cause, effect and relationship of the traits on grain yield. The experiment was carried out in randomized complete block design with four replications. The corn hybrids (2B655PW, AG7088PRO3 and P4285YHR) were grown with row spacing of 40 cm, 60 cm, 80 cm, 95 cm. The evaluated traits physiological were: net photosynthesis (PN), stomatal conductance (Gs), intercellular concentration of CO2 (Ci), leaf transpiration (E), water use efficiency (WUE) and carboxylation efficiency (CE). The morphological were: plant height (PH) and ear insertion height (EIH), stem diameter (SD), and leaf area (LA) and the productive traits were the total number of ear per hectare (NE), number of grains per ear (NGE), grain mass per ear (GME), 100 grain weight (100GW) and grain yield (GY). The characteristics of maize hybrids cultivated in environment with reduced spacing (40cm, 60cm, 80cm, 95cm) of the 2016/2017 crop were investigated through the multicollinearity path analysis. The physiological, morphological and productive traits are considered sources of variation of cause and effect of corn yield in reduced spaced. This traits are essential for observations in maize breeding programs to obtain high yielding varieties in reduced spacing. In conclusion, the physiological (PN, CE, WUE, Ci, Gs), morphological (EIH, SD, LA) and productive (NE, GME) traits provide gains in maize grain yield via indirect selection when the crop is subjected to 40 cm row spacing.