Production Potential And Plant Water Status In Transplanted Maize (Zea Mays L.) As Influenced By Methods Of Seedling Raising And Age Of Seedling Under Irrigated Midlands Of Eastern India

The field experiments were carried out for 3 years from 2008-11 at ICAR Research Farm, Patna, Bihar to study the production potential and plant water status of maize (Zea mays L.) crop under transplanted condition as affected by different age of seedlings (7, 6, 5 and 4 weeks) and methods of nursery raising (flat bed, raised bed, sand culture and plastic culture). Raising seedling in nurseries under sand culture and raised bed methods and transplantation of 5 weeks old seedlings produced significantly higher yields (5.2, 5.1 and 5.7 t/ha respectively), over other treatments during years of experimentation. Dry matter accumulation and yield attributes were also higher when seedlings were raised under sand culture or raised bed method and transplanted at 5 weeks age. Relative leaf water content at 45 and 90 days after transplantation was also reported higher in crops grown through transplantation of 5 weeks older seedling raised under sand culture or raised bed conditions in nurseries. Transplanting 5 weeks old seedlings raised under sand culture as well as raised bed method gave significantly higher grain yield (6.71 and 6.36 t/ha, respectively) and fetched higher net monitory return over all other treatments.