Performance of heat resilient maize hybrids to different levels of fertilizers in Tungabhadra Project command area

Abstract

The high temperature and heat stress are the main factors that limit the optimum yield of maize in tropical countries. Improvement in the agronomic practices is need of the hour to overcome heat stress in maize hence the experiment was conducted to study the response of heat resilient maize hybrids to different fertilizer levels on nutrient uptake, dry matter production and yield. It was laid out in split plot design and replicated thrice. Main plot includes genotypes (viz., RCRMH-2, RCRMH-3, RCRMH-11 and Cargill 900M Gold) and sub plots with three fertilizer levels (viz., 75 % Recommended Dose of Fertilizer (RDF), 100 % RDF and 125 % RDF. The 100 % RDF was 187.5:75:37.5 kg NPK ha-1). Results revealed that significantly higher grain yield was recorded by genotype, RCRMH-3 (5841 kg / ha) and RCRMH-2 (5627 kg / ha) and suitable for summer seasons as compared to RCRMH-11 (5139 kg / ha) and Cargill 900M Gold (4695 kg / ha). Among the fertilizer levels, increase in fertilizer levels from 75 (4922 kg / ha) to 100 % (5365 kg / ha) increased the grain yield significantly and further increase to 125 % RDF (5689 kg / ha), there is no significant differences among the treatments. These treatments also showed similar effects with respect to growth and yield parameters contributing for the higher yield and monetary benefits.