Abstract

The field experiment was conducted at Students’ Research Farm, Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana, during late kharif 2009–10 to study the effect of different irrigation regimes (IW/CPE ratio 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 and 1.25) and nitrogen levels (100, 125, 150 and 175 kg N/ha) on growth and yield of late kharif sown maize. The grain yield under irrigation regimes I1.25 (three irrigations) and I1.00 (three irrigations) was observed to the tune of 83.1 and 81.2 q/ha, respectively, which were statistically at par with each other but significantly higher than the grain yield observed under I0.75 (two irrigations) and I0.50 (one irrigation). Various growth parameters like plant height, number of leaves per plant, leaf area index (LAI), photosynthetically active radiation interception (PARI %), dry matter accumulation (DMA), crop growth rate (CGR), relative growth rate (RGR) and SPAD reading determining the chlorophyll content of leaves at tasselling stage were also higher under higher irrigation regimes. Among nitrogen levels, N150 and N175 being statistically at par with each other gave significantly higher grain yield over N125 and N100. Similar trend was observed for growth parameters viz., plant height, number of leaves per plant, LAI, PARI (%), DMA, CGR, RGR, leaf chlorophyll content, etc.