Morphological and Phenological Attributes of Maize Affected by Different Tillage Practices and Varied Sowing Methods

Abstract

To check the performance of maize under different tillage practices and varied sowing methods, an experiment was conducted at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad. The experiment was carried out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with split plot arrangement with three replications. Different tillage practices viz , conventional tillage, minimum tillage and deep tillage were kept in main plots while sowing methods viz , flat sowing, ridge sowing and bed sowing were allocated to subplots. The maize hybrid “Pioneer-32T16” was sown on 24 th February, 2012. Data pertaining to morphological and phenological attributes of maize showed that tillage practices and sowing methods had a significant effect on Germination count·m -2 (7.8), leaf area per plant (5010 cm 2 ), leaf area index (4.87), crop growth rate (20.69 g·m -2 ·d -1 ), plant height (213.04 cm), number of leaves per plant (11.89), days to 50% tasseling (72.44) and days to 50% silking (73.77). Economically, maize sown on ridges under deep tillage gave maximum net income of Rs. 85162 ha -1 while minimum net income of Rs. 56984 ha -1 was found where flat sowing was adopted under minimum tillage system and also more BCR of 1.70 was recorded in ridge sown maize under deep tillage.