Yield responses of maize as influenced by supplemental foliar applied phosphorus under drought stress

Abstract

Drought is one of the most serious problems posing a grave threat to cereals production including maize. A field study was conducted to evaluate the effect of foliar applied phosphorus @ 8 kg ha -1 at 8 th leaf stage on yield and yield components of four maize hybrids i.e two drought tolerant (6525, 32B33) and two drought sensitive (Hycorn and 31P41) under normal and water stress conditions. RCBD with factorial arrangement were employed to lay out the experiment with a net plot size of 4.75 m x 5 m with three replication at research area of Agronomy, Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. The foliar applied phosphorus @ 8 kg ha -1 at 8 th leaf stage of maize significantly affect the yield and yield parameters in both drought tolerant and sensitive hybrids. The water stress decreased the 1000-grain weight (21.2%), grain yield (21.3%) and biological yield (22.4%) as compared to normal irrigation. The both drought tolerant hybrids of maize (6525 and 32B33) performed better than drought sensitive hybrids (Hycorn and 31P41) under normal and water stress conditions.