EFFECT OF WATER STRESS AND ORGANIC FERTILIZATION SOURCES ON MAIZE GROWTH AND YIELD

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the Experimental Station Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Egypt, during 2017 and 2018 seasons to study the effect of water stress (skipping of some irrigations) and organic fertilization sources (without, farmyard manure “FYM”, poultry manure “PM” and compost) as well as their interactions on growth, yield and its components and grains quality of maize. The experiment was carried out in strip-plot design with three replications. The obtained results from this investigation illustrate that giving maize plants 7200 m3 /ha irrigation water divided equally in 6 irrigations gave the highest values of all studied characters of growth, yield and its attributes as well as grains quality in both seasons while skipping second and third irrigations, respectively (giving maize plants 4800 m3 /ha irrigation water divided equally in 4 irrigations was accompanied with the least values of these characters in both seasons. Organic fertilizing maize with poultry manure (PM) gave the highest values of growth characters, yield and its attributes, grains quality characters, and followed by organic fertilizing with compost then organic fertilizing with farmyard manure (FYM) in both seasons. It can be recommended that giving maize plants 7200 m3 /ha irrigation water divided equally in 6 irrigations and organic fertilizing with poultry manure at the rate of 20 m3 /h in order to maximize its growth, productivity and grain quality and giving plants 4800 m3 /ha irrigation water divided equally in 4 irrigations by skipping second and third irrigations, respectively and organic fertilizing with poultry manure at the rate of 20 m3 /h to save irrigation water (2400 m3 /ha) and maintain highest productivity and grain quality under the environmental conditions of Egypt