Abstract:
Water stress is one of the
major abiotic factors affecting crop growth
and development at every growth stages.
Effects of water deficit on the vegetative
growth stage of four maize varieties
consisting of two Quality Protein Maize
varieties (ILE1OB and ART98SW6OB) and
two drought tolerant checks (TZPBSR and
DTESTRSYN) were evaluated under the
screen house conditions at the Institute of
Agricultural Research and Training (I.A.R
& T), Moor Plantation, Ibadan. Maize seeds
were sown in 20 L plastic pots filled with 15
kg top soil, which were subjected to four
watering regimes of 25, 50, 75 and 100%
field capacities (FC). The experimental
design was a 4 x 4 factorial fitted into CRD
with four replications. Data were collected
on days to germination, number of leaves
per plant, leaf area, plant height, stem
diameter, leaf extension rate, biomass yield
and water use efficiency. The result showed
that days to germination were prolonged as
the moisture availability decreases, while
water use efficiency increased as the
moisture level reduced. Reduction in
moisture availability caused significant
reduction in the other evaluated parameters.
At 25% FC DTESTRSYN was superior in
leaf area, number of leaves per plant, days
to germination and water use efficiency,
TZPBSR had highest values for stem
diameter and biomass yield, while ILE1OB
was superior in plant height, stem diameter,
leaf and stem extension rate. ILE1OB
competes favourably with the drought
tolerant checks and performed better than
ART98SW6OB. Adequate moisture
condition is fundamental for normal growth
and development in maize crops.
