Effect of microclimatic regimes and nitrogen management practices on phenology, yield and agrometeorological indices for rabi maize

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted during rabi seasons of 2016-17 and 2017-18 to study the effect of microclimatic regimes and nitrogen management practices on phenology, yield and agrometeorological indices for maize. The experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) with three replications and sixteen treatments with four different microclimatic regimes (M1 – 1 November, M2 – 15 November, M3 – 1 December, M4 – 15 December) and four nitrogen management practices (N1: 100 % RDF of N as inorganic; N2: 75% N as inorganic + 0.5 t ha-1 vermicompost (V.C.); N3: 50 % N as inorganic + 1.0 t ha-1 V.C.; N4: 25% N as inorganic + 1.5 t ha-1 V.C.). The crop sown on November 1 required significantly higher number of days and accumulated GDD and accumulated HTU to attain various phenophases compared to other date of sowings. Highest number of grains cob-1, 1000-grain weight, grain weight cob-1 and yield were recorded in the crop sown on November 1 and decreased with delay in sowing. Application of 50 % N as inorganic along with vermicompost @ 1.0 t ha-1 recorded significantly higher number of grains cob-1, 1000-grain weight, grain weight cob-1 and grain yield compared to other nitrogen management practices.