NITROGEN AND PLANT DENSITY EFFECT ON MAIZE YIELD AND YIELD TRAITS

The objective of this research was to study the response of maize Local Vs Commercial hybrid to various levels of nitrogen (N) and plant density (D) for yield (Kg ha -1 ).Maize local hybrid (Baber) and Commercial hybrid (Poineer-3025) were planted using four levels of nitrogen (00, 75, 150, 225 kg ha -1 ) and three plant densities (74000, 95000 and 133000 ha -1 ) at Agronomy Research Farm Malakandher, University of Agriculture Peshawar during summer 2009.Randomized Complete Block Design with split plot arrangement replicated three times was used.Sowing was done by hand at uniform row spacing 75 cm apart & plant densities were maintained at 10cm, 14cm and 18cm distances in rows, respectively.Results revealed that varieties did not differ (p<0.05) in yield or its traits, however, N showed marked difference in the canopy green area index (GAI), plant height, ear per plant, grains ear -1 including thousand grains weight.Plant densities also showed marked changes in the GAI, ear plant -1 , grains number ear -1 , grain rows ear -1 , 1000 grains weight that affected grain yield.The interactions of treatments were found significant (p<0.05) for grain yield due to differences in yield contributing traits.The study suggested that irrespective of variety, higher N 225 kg ha -1 under the D 95,000 ha -1 contributed towards higher yield with relatively higher biomass.It is obvious to planting maize at 14cm distances within 0.75m rows in Peshawar.Nonetheless, varieties both local and/or commercial have shown almost a similar potential under the applied inputs and climate of the area.