Effect of zinc sulfate on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of corn (Zea mays) in drought stress

Abstract

In hot and arid regions, drought stress is considered as one of the main reasons for yield reduction. To study the effect of drought stress and zinc spray on the yield and yield components of corn, an experiment was carried out during the crop seasons of 2010 and 2011 on Research Farm, Islamic Azad University of Gonabad as a split factorial within randomized complete block design with three replications. The main plots with irrigation factor and four levels were considered: A) full irrigation, B) stopping irrigation at pollination step, and C) stopping irrigation at the seed filling and four levels of zinc sulfate including 0 and 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% spraying (tassel initiation and grain filling) were as the subplots. The drought stress reduced the thousand kernels weight (TKW) in seed filling stage and the number of seeds per ear in tasseling stage about 11% and 27% less than the one of control treatment, respectively. Zinc increased the thousand kernels weight from 27.3 to 31.3 grams and induced an increase in the number of seeds per ear from 710 to 770. The results obtained within the present research showed that zinc spray has fairly improved the effects caused by drought stress.