Abstract

Moisture stress management practices under drought constrain situation are of foremost priority to reduce yield loss. In this regard, field experiment was conducted at Agricultural Research Station, Bhavanisagar, Tamil Nadu, India during rabi 2017 and 2018 to study the influence of different moisture stress management practices on the root growth, yield attributes and yield of maize. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications comprised of four irrigation regimes as main factor based on irrigation water to cumulative pan evaporation ratio (IW/CPE) of 1.0 (I1.0), 0.8 (I0.8), 0.6 (I0.6) and 0.4 (I0.4) and four moisture stress management treatments viz., foliar application of pink pigmented facultative methylotrophs 1% (FPPFM), Brassinolide 0.1 ppm (FBr), Silicic acid 0.2% (FSI) and control (FC) as a sub factor. Study revealed that irrigation scheduling at IW/CPE 0.4 produced significantly higher root length (54.7 cm), root volume (124.1 cc m−3) while root dry weight (1618 kg/ha) was comparable with IW/CPE 0.6 (1584 kg/ha). Among the foliar application PPFM @ 1% recorded significantly higher root length (53.4 cm), root volume (115.2 cc m−3) with root dry weight (1577 kg/ha) comparable with foliar application of silicic acid @ 0.2% (1525 kg/ha). IW/CPE 1.0 with foliar application of PPFM @ 1% recorded significantly higher and comparable seed weight per cob, Number of seeds per cob and grain yield with other moisture stress management treatments in IW/CPE 1.0 and 0.8. At IW/CPE 0.6, foliar application of PPFM @ 1% on 25 and 45 DAS (FPPFM) produced moderately and higher comparable seed weight per cob, number of seeds per cob and grain yield with all moisture stress management practices at IW/CPE 0.8. Results from the study indicated that under normal water availability situation, irrigating at IW/CPE 0.8 was sufficient to produce higher yield. While under water stress condition IW/CPE 0.6 with foliar application of PPFM @ 1% was found to enhance root growth and thereby supplement optimum yield.