EFFECT OF ROW DIRECTION AND PLANT ARRANGEMENT ON GROWTH, YIELD AND YIELD COMPONENTS OF TWO MAIZE CULTIVATERS

Abstract

Two field experiments were carried out at Sheiba village, Zagazig District, Sharkia Governorate during 2005 and 2006 summer growing seasons to s tudy the effect of row direction (two row direction i.e. East-West (E-W) and N orth-South (N-S)) and pl ant arrangement i.e. (50 x 35, 60 x 29.1 a nd 70 x 25 cm) on growth, yield and yield attributes of two maize hybrids (SC 10 and SC 30 k8) single crosses. Split-split plot design with four replicates was used. Results indicated that row direction North-south (N-S) produced the highest li ght i nterception % (LIP%) at d ifferent he ight co mpared with row direction East- west. The obtained results indicated that row direction at East-west (E-W) was superior than the other row direction at North-south (N -S) o n plant height, ear leaf area, LA I, ear height, ear length, ear diameter, grain number/row and/ear, 100-grain weight, ear grain weight and grain yield/faddan. Results also showed that the plant arrangement of ((70 x 25 produced the highest (LIP at 150 cm height and grain yield/faddan followed by 60 x 29 and 50 x 35 the lowest grain yield/faddan on the other plant arrangement in the most characters under this study. The obtained results revealed that the tested maize hybrids varied significantly in plant height, ear leaf area, ear height, ear length, ear diameter, number of grains/row and /ear, 100 grain weight, ear grain wei ght and finally grain yield/faddan. The si ngle cross 10 (SC10) s urpassed than the other o ne (SC 30 K8).