Evaluation of Yield and its Attributes of Five Maize Cultivars to Different Nitrogen and Weeding Levels Under Irrigation

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted in the Demonstration Farm of Mohammed Osman Salih ( Blue Nile North of Gezira state / ElBagir area) for the two consecutive seasons ( summer 2007 /2008 and 2008 /2009 ) to study the effect of nitrogen and weeding levels on yield and yield components of five cultivars of maize (Zea Mays L.) under irrigation . The treatments used consisted of three levels of nitrogen control (N0) , 86 kg N/ha (N1), 129 kg N/ha (N2), two levels of weeding non-weed control (W0) , weeding (W1) and five cultivars, open pollinated Giza-2 (V1) , Var-113 (V2) , Hudiba-1 (V3) and Hybrid cultivars, Hycorn-90 (V4) and Hycorn-675 (V5). The 30 factorial treatments were executed in randomized complete block design, with four replications. The results obtained showed that nitrogen fertilizer had a significant effect on growth of maize cultivars, particularly plant height, leaves number and dry weight of plant. Nitrogen fertilizer also significantly affected final seed yield and some yield components as cob yield and number of seeds per cob when different nitrogen doing with no-weeding were not significant for seed yield. The results from these experiments showed that hybrid cultivars maize efficiently utilized nitrogen without weeding better than the open cultivars except Giza-2. The results obtained showed negligible differences between the two seasons for yield and yield components. This justifies growing maize in summer with 129 kg/ha nitrogen and good cultivation.