Abstract:
A field experiment to
evaluate the effect of different plant spacing
on the growth and yield of maize hybrids
was conducted at Agronomic Research
Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad,
during autumn, 2008. The experiment was
laid out in Randomized Complete Block
Design (RCBD) with factorial arrangement
having three replications using a net plot
size of 6m x 3m. Two hybrids H1 (30 Y 87)
and H2 (31 R 88) having density levels S1
(15 cm), S2 (20 cm), S3 (25 cm) and S4 (30
cm) were sown at row spacing of 60 cm.
The hybrid 30 Y 87 was early in maturity,
produced more number of cobs per plant,
more number of grain rows per cob, less
number of grains per row and less cob
length than the hybrid 31 R 88. Similarly
1000-grain weight, grain yield and straw
yield of hybrid H1 (30 Y 87) was
significantly greater than the hybrid H2 (31
R 88 Although narrow plant spacing (15, 20
cm) caused substantial reduction in yield
components such as grains/cob, number of
cobs/plant and 1000-grain weight compared
to the wide plant spacing (30 cm) yet it gave
the maximum yield (7.69 t ha-1) against the
minimum of (5.01 t ha-1) in the latter. The
interactive effect of plant population density
and hybrids was found to be non-significant
in all the parameters under study.
