Analysis of lodging resistance competitiveness of maize cultivars in target growing environments

Lodging in maize is one of the major problems in maize production worldwide. In order to reduce the risk and loss of this disaster, in this study a model for analysis of lodging resistance competitiveness of different maize cultivars in target growing environments was established and seven planting counties in Jilin Province, China were selected as target study areas. Firstly, lodging resistance of a maize cultivar was determined based on frequency distribution analysis using the data of national regional trials for maize cultivars in recent 9 years. Secondly, lodging stress of a planting county was measured based on probability analysis of the stressful extreme wind event in maize vegetative stage using local meteorology data in recent 59 years. Thirdly, a model for comparing different maize cultivars' lodging resistance performance in target growing environments was established combining cultivar's resistance with environmental stress. At last, six new commercial maize cultivars were taken as examples to illustrate the modeling and calculating procedures. The results indicated that different cultivars' lodging resistance competitiveness related not only to each cultivar's lodging resistance characteristic but also to local environmental lodging stress conditions. The provided method for measuring environmental lodging stress and the competitiveness analysis model are very useful, which can facilitate the identification of a better-adapted cultivar for a specific growing environment and precision application of different cultivars with lower lodging risk.