DENSIDADE POPULACIONAL, ESPAÇAMENTO E ADUBAÇÃO NITROGENADA NA SEMEADURA DE MILHO DE SEGUNDA SAFRA

Abstract

Appropriate distribution of the plants and nitrogen fertilization are management practices that can affect the grain yield of maize crop. For the cultivation of out-of-season maize, information is needed regarding crop response to plant arrangement and nitrogen fertilization. Thus, this study investigated the effects of interaction between plant density, row spacing and nitrogen applied at sowing on out-of-season maize cropping under no-till. The experimental design was a randomized block design, arranged in a split-split-plot, with four replications. In the plots were allocated the plant densities (60,000 and 75,000 plants ha-1); subplots the three row spacings (0.40; 0.60 and 0.80 m) and the subsubplots four N rates (20, 35, 50 and 65 kg ha-1 N) were applied at sowing. Nitrogen topdressing was performed by applying 100 kg ha-1 N for all treatments as urea. Regardless of the N rates, the density of 60,000 plants ha-1and the row spacing of 0.40 m resulted higher grain yield of out-of-season maize. The greater number of grains per ear, number of rows per ear, ear length, 100 grain mass and grain yield of out-of-season maize are obtained with the application of 65 kg ha-1 N at sowing.