Modeling kernel weight of hybrid maize seed production with different water regimes

Rongchao Shi, Ling Tong, Risheng Ding, Taisheng Du and Manoj Kumar Shukla

Agricultural Water Management, 2021, vol. 250, issue C

Abstract: Kernel weight (KW) is the key to ensuring seed vigor in hybrid maize (Zea mays L.) production, and irrigation is important for ensuring KW in arid regions. Irrigation experiments were conducted in an arid region of Northwest China to investigate the effects of water deficit on KW, plant growth rate per kernel after silking (PGRKAS), lag phase duration (LPD), kernel growth rate during effective grain filling (KGREGF), and effective grain filling duration (EGFD), which included a 50% water deficit at the vegetative stage, and a 50% and 100% water deficit at the flowering and grain-filling stages in 2018 and 2019. A restricted pollination treatment and two defoliation treatments (three and six leaves were removed from the top 14 days after silking) were conducted under each irrigation treatment in 2019 to obtain a wide range of data on grain filling characteristics and aboveground biomass. The results showed that a 50% water deficit at the vegetative stage shortened EGFD and LPD in both years. The 50% and 100% water deficit at the grain-filling stage decreased KW, PGRKAS, EGFD, and KGREGF in 2019, but had no significant differences in each indices in 2018 due to heavy rainfall. We found a bilinear plateau relationship between relative KGREGF (RKGREGF) and relative PGRKAS (RPGRKAS) as well as a logistic relationship between relative EGFD and RPGRKAS/RKGREGF. Combined with the Jensen model to simulate biomass characteristic parameters (the maximum aboveground biomass, the day of year of the maximum absolute growth rate, and the initial growth rate), the KW–water model performed well in predicting the KW of hybrid maize seed production under different irrigation treatments. This research provides a quantitative method for modeling the KW of hybrid maize seed production, which considers the source-sink relationship under different water regimes in arid areas.

Keywords: Grain filling characteristic; Water deficit; Plant growth rate; Kernel weight model; Source-sink relationship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:250:y:2021:i:c:s0378377421001165

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2021.106851

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