Abstract
For maize (Zea mays L.), early planting date could be of advantage to high yields but a review of planting date effect on high-yielding data is not yet available. Following this rationale, a synthesis-analysis was conducted from the farmer annual maize contest-winner data (n = 16171 data points; 2011–2016 period); cordially provided by the National Corn Growers Association and a scientific literature dataset collected from research publications since the last three decades. The main objectives of this study were to: (i) identify spatial yield variability within the high-yielding maize dataset; (ii) understand the impacts of planting date on yield variability; (iii) explore the effect of management practices on maize yield-planting date relationship, and (iv) utilize the yield-planting date dataset collected via farmer contest-winner as a benchmarking data to be compared to the compendium of scientific literature available for yield-planting date relationship for the primary US maize producing regions. Major findings of this study are: (i) significant correlation between planting date and latitude, (ii) maize yield was maximized when planting window was 89–106 day of the year (DOY) for the 30–35°N, 107–118 DOY for the 35–40°N, <119 DOY for 40–45°N, and <129 DOY for 45–50°N, and (iii) both, yield contest and literature datasets portrayed that planting date becomes a more relevant factor when planting late, presenting a relatively smaller planting window in high-compared to low-latitudes.
Highlights
For maize (Zea mays L.), wise use of the planting date window, lengthening the growing season while exploring favorable conditions at critical crop growth stages, has been one of the main factors to be considered for high-yielding production
In Corn Belt states, stronger adverse effect was found for delayed than advanced planting (Swanson and Wilhelm, 1996); longer maturity hybrids were more sensitive to late planting date than the short maturity hybrids
The main objectives of this study are to: (i) identify spatial yield variability within the high-yielding maize dataset; (ii) understand the impacts of planting date on yield variability; (iii) explore the effect of management practices on maize yield-planting date relationship; and (iv) utilize the yield-planting date dataset collected via farmer contest-winner as a benchmarking data to be compared against a synthesis-analysis of the compendium of scientific literature available for yield-planting date relationship for the primary US maize producing regions
Summary
For maize (Zea mays L.), wise use of the planting date window, lengthening the growing season while exploring favorable conditions at critical crop growth stages, has been one of the main factors to be considered for high-yielding production. Synthesis-Analysis for US Maize Planting Date plant density, all management tools available to maximize capture of sunlight, biomass conversion, and overall maize productivity. It is unclear if the planting date trend will keep progressing towards earlier dates in the future as this practice is limited by lower soil temperatures and wet early season soil conditions (Kucharik, 2006, 2008; Cassman, 2016). Regional efforts will be required to better understand how the optimum planting window is changing across US maize growing latitudes and, at the same time, to identify solution addressing yield reduction if planting is forced to be too early or too late
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