Whether Increasing Maize Planting Density Increases the Total Water Use Depends on Soil Water in the 0–60 cm Soil Layer in the North China Plain

Jingtao Qin, Xiaosen Wang, Xichao Fan, Mingliang Jiang and Mouchao Lv
Additional contact information
Jingtao Qin: Key Laboratory of Water Saving Irrigation Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Farmland Irrigation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang 453002, China
Xiaosen Wang: Key Laboratory of Water Saving Irrigation Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Farmland Irrigation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang 453002, China
Xichao Fan: Key Laboratory of Water Saving Irrigation Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Farmland Irrigation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang 453002, China
Mingliang Jiang: Key Laboratory of Water Saving Irrigation Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Farmland Irrigation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang 453002, China
Mouchao Lv: Key Laboratory of Water Saving Irrigation Engineering, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs/Farmland Irrigation Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Xinxiang 453002, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 10, 1-13

Abstract: Increasing planting density generally increases total water use by maize ( Zea mays L.), but there are contrasting conclusions as well. To determine whether increasing planting density would increase total water use by maize, a 3-year field experiment was conducted in the North China Plain. In 2018, maize was planted at the four densities of 57,100, 66,700, 80,000, and 100,000 plants ha −1 . In 2019 and 2020, another four planting densities of 27,800, 41,700, 66,700, and 111,100 plants ha −1 were selected. The results showed that increasing planting density increased leaf area index but decreased leaf stomatal conductance; maize grain yield reached the maximum at about 80,000 plants ha −1 . At the VE-V6 and R3-R6 stage, soil water use occurred mainly in the 0–60 cm soil layer, and planting density showed no effect on total soil water use by maize. At the V6-R3 stage, when soil water in the 0–60 cm soil layer was sufficient to meet the evapotranspiration demand, soil water use occurred mainly in the 0–60 cm soil layer; increasing planting density did not increase total soil water use. When soil water in the 0–60 cm soil layer was insufficient and could not meet the demand of evapotranspiration, soil water use in the 60–100 cm soil layer increased greatly and kept rising with increased planting density, resulting in elevated total soil water use. Therefore, we conclude that the effect of planting density on water use by maize varies with soil water content in the 0–60 cm soil layer in the North China Plain.

Keywords: planting density; leaf stomatal conductance; soil water content; evapotranspiration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/5848/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/10/5848/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:10:p:5848-:d:813626

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().