Responses of maize hybrids with contrasting maturity to planting date in Northeast China

Fulai Ke,Xinglin Ma

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-95328-5

Abstract

Maize sowing in semi-humid region of Jilin province is often delayed beyond the optimum planting time window because of soil water stress typically occurring before or during the planting season. Research was conducted at Lishu city, in Jilin province from 2009 through 2010 to determine the responses of maize hybrids with contrasting maturity to planting date. Three popular hybrids with contrasting different maturity, short-season hybrid Jidan27, mid-season hybrid Xianyu335, and full-season hybrid Zhengdan958 were planted in early May and mid-May and thinned to populations of 67,500 plants ha−1. The results showed that durations from emergence to silking stage for all the hybrids consistently shortened as the planting delayed, but interaction effects of hybrids, planting date and year existed for the duration of silking to physiological maturity stage. The longer maturity hybrid usually had grain yield advantage over earlier maturity hybrid when planting at early May, but the earlier maturity hybrid often showed a greater yield than longer maturity hybrid when planting was delayed. The highest yield occurred at the treatment combination of the mid-season hybrid and delayed planting date, and the shorter season hybrid typically showed stable and higher grain yield across planting dates. Changes in grain volume per unit of land area among hybrids and planting date treatment combination were consistent with the changes in grain yields, indicating that the yield is determined usually by the sink capacity. Further research is needed to evaluate the effects of hybrids maturity and planting date on maize under different planting densities.

Highlights

Maize sowing in semi-humid region of Jilin province is often delayed beyond the optimum planting time window because of soil water stress typically occurring before or during the planting season
Short season hybrid JD27 exhibited both lower duration from emergence to silking and silking to physiological maturity stage compared to mid- and full-season hybrids
They found that thermal time from planting to silk emergence decreased an average of 34 GDDs (Growing degree days) for June vs. early May plantings while the grain-fill period decreased an addition 110 GDDs with late planting

Summary

Introduction

Maize sowing in semi-humid region of Jilin province is often delayed beyond the optimum planting time window because of soil water stress typically occurring before or during the planting season. The highest yield occurred at the treatment combination of the mid-season hybrid and delayed planting date, and the shorter season hybrid typically showed stable and higher grain yield across planting dates. The cumulative time and thermal requirement for regionally adapted maize hybrids to reach black layer shortens[13] In this case, it is necessary considering whether to switch to earlier-maturity hybrids to ensure that physiological grain maturity occurs before a killing fall frost and stable yield can be obtained. In Northeast China, full-season or ultra-full-season hybrids have been used by producers, even when delayed planting operations occurred Researches in this region only focused on risk of late-maturity maize hybrids under extreme climate conditions[8] and difference in maize yield between mid- and late-maturing hybrids[33]. There is little research on the planting date- maize hybrid maturity effects

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