YIELD PERFORMANCE OF WHITE MAIZE (SAUWM 9-3-3) UNDER VARYING FERTILIZER LEVELS AND SPACINGS IN KHARIF-2 SEASON

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during May to September 2019 at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207 to evaluate the yield performance of white maize as influenced by different levels of fertilizer under different spacing. The experiment comprised two different factors; (1) three levels of fertilizer application viz. F 1 (Recommended doses of fertilizer (RDF), F 2 ii

(25% less than RDF) and F 3 (25% higher than RDF); and (2) three different plant spacing viz. S 1 (60 cm × 25 cm), S 2 (50 cm × 25 cm) and S 3 (40 cm × 25 cm). Both the fertilizer dose and spacing level along with their interactions had significant effect on almost all vegetative and reproductive parameters. The highest stover yield(14.8 t ha 1 ) was obtained from F 2 S 3 -1 ) and the lowest stover yield (5.83 t ha (25% less than RDF and 40 cm × 25 cm) and F 3 (25% higher than RDF and 60 cm × 25 cm) treatment combinations, respectively. The F 2

(25% less than RDF) in combination with S 2 (50 cm × 25 cm) performed the best and obtained the highest cob length (18.45 cm), number of rows cob -1 (13.67), number of grains row -1 (25.89) number of grains cob -1 (354.54), weight of grains cob (89.56 g), weight of cob (118.56 g), 100- grain weight ( 35.70 g) which contributed to obtain the highest grain yield (8.44 t ha

-1 ) as well as biological yield (22.08 t ha -1 )