PARTITIONING BEHAVIOR OF WHITE MAIZE UNDER VARYING FERTILIZER DOSES AND LEAF REMOVAL

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at the agronomy field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from July to November, 2018 in Kharif-II season to evaluate the effect of different level of fertilizer doses and leaf removal on the yield of white maize (SAUD 18-3-3). The experiment comprised of two factors, Factor A: four level of fertilizer doses i.e. F 0 = No fertilizer application (control), F r = Recommended dose of fertilizer, F 1 = 25% more than recommended dose of fertilizer and F 2 = 25% less than recommended dose of fertilizer; and four level of leaf removal i.e. C sa = 4 Leaves clipping above cobs at silking stage, C sb = 4 Leaves clipping below cobs at silking stage,C ga = 4 Leaves clipping above cobs at grain filling stage and C gb = 4 Leaves clipping below cobs at grain filling stage. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design with five replications. Total 80 unit pots were for the experiment with 16 treatments. Effect of different fertilizer doses, different stage of leaf removal individually and their interaction effect showed significant variation on plant growth and yield. 25% more than recommended dose of fertilizer with 4 leaves clipping above cobs at grain filling stage (F 1 C ga ) combination showed the highest grain yield (7.92 t ha ), maximum leaf area plant −1 (737.75 cm 2 ), highest leaf dry weight plant (26.25 g), longest cob (18.50 cm), highest cob circumference (22.00 cm), maximum number of grains cob −1 (441.50), highest grain weight cob −1 (157.50 g), maximum shell+chaff weight cob −1 (29.38 g), highest shelling percentage (83.54 %), maximum 1000-grains weight (356.58 g), highest stover yield (8.58 t ha −1 ), maximum biological yield (16.50 t ha −1 ) and maximum harvest index (47.99 %). Irrespective of treatments, most of the dry weight moved to grain (50.21%) which was then followed by stem (22.93%). The leaf and shell+chaff had same amount of dry matter (around 13%) in each of them. F 0

had the total dry matter in leaf 35.35% of the total, In stem F 2 had highest dry weight (16.57%) of total plant and Csb treatment provides highest dry matter in leaf (15.93%) and stem (25.92%).