Effects of continuous straw return with fertilizer on maize grain filling characteristics, yield and grain quality

In order to investigate the effects of continuous straw return with fertilizer on maize yield and grain quality, an experiment of summer corn cultivar Zhengdan 958 was carried out during 2008 to 2011 at Mengcheng scientific observation station of crop cultivation in east China, Ministry of Agriculture. Four treatments were designed for no wheat-maize straw return(W0C0F1), maize straw return but not wheat straw return(W0C1F1), wheat straw return but not maize straw return(W1C0F1) and wheat-maize straw return in two seasons(W1C1F1) at randomized complete block designs with N application rate of 300 kg·hm-2. The results show that wheat-maize straw return in two seasons with fertilizer significantly improve the rate of grain filling during gradual increase stage(V1), extend the duration of rapid and slow increasing stage(T2, T3) which can significantly improve grain unit weight and oil content, and also improve the grain weight, protein and starch contents which result in higher grain yield and 1000-grain weight.