STUDY OF YIELD AND ITS COMPONENTS OF INTRODUCED VARIETIES OF MAIZE UNDER DIFFERENT PLANTING DENSITIES

Abstract

In order to evaluate the performance of introduced varieties of maize and test them under different levels of plant density, and to determine which of the introduced varieties give a high yield and at what plant density, a field experiment was carried out at Station A in the Department of Field Crops- College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences - University of Baghdad- Jadiriyah, for the fall season 2021, the RCBD design was used with four replications, in a split plot arrangement, the three plant densities (50.000, 70.000, and 90.000 Plant s ha^-1) were the main plates, while the varieties represented the secondary factor, which is six varieties of maize, class 2 = 5783 DKC, Class 3 = 6315 DKC, Class 4= 6590 DKC, which are introduced and compared with three local varieties: Fajr, Sarah and Al-Maha, The traits of yield components (the ear length, the number of rows ear^-1, the number of grains row^-1, the number of grains ear^-1, the number of ears, the weight of 100 grain) and their relationship to the plant yield were studied, The plant density significantly affected all the studied traits except for the number of ears, it was not significant. Low plant density outperformed the highest plant yield (157.2 g) due to its superiority in ear length, number of rows ear^-1, number of grains row^-1, number of grains ear^-1 and weight of 100 grains. The plant over the local varieties, especially variety 3, which gave the highest plant yield (168.2 g), followed by variety 4 (155.4 g), due to their superiority in ear length, number of grains row^-1, number of grains ear-1, number of ears, and weight of 100 grains. The interaction between varieties and plant density was significant in all studied traits. We suggest planting the introduced varieties at different planting dates and locations to show their ability to environmentally imprint Iraq's climate and study them in the spring season, and test them under other abiotic stresses such as drought.