Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty member, Agricultural and natural Resources Reasearch center of Yazd, Iran

2 M.Sc of Agronomy

Abstract

In order to study the effect of drought stress based on irrigation intervals (7 and 10 days) on grain yield of four maize single cross hybrids (500, 647,700 and 704), a split plot experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with 3 replications at Khatam county during the summer of 2009. Plant height, number of row in ear, number of grains in row, number of grains in ear, ear length, ear diameter, ear wood weight, 1000- grain weight, biological yield, grain yield and harvest index were measured. The results showed that drought stress caused a significant decrease in all measured traits, so that the grain yield was reduced from 10.2 to 5.5 ton/ha by increasing the irrigation interval from 7 to 10 days. There were also significant differences between hybrids grain yield. The greatest grain yield was produced by KSC704 under non-stressed conditions (11.2 ton.ha-1) and the lowest grain yield was produced by KSC500 under stressed conditions (3.9 ton.ha-1). The MP, GMP, STI indices introduced the SC704 as the most resistant hybrid, while TOL and SSI indices indicated the SC704 and SC700 as the most resistant hybrids, respectively.

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