Irrigation Intervals and Nano-Silicon Applications Effect on Maize Growth, Yield, Yield Attributes and Chemical Composition of Grains

Abstract

A field trial was carried out on maize ( Zea mays L.) single cross (Pioneer 3080) variety in the Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Omar Al-Mukhtar University, Al-Bayda, Libya during 2023 summer season to evaluate the effect of foliar application of five nano-silicon particles (NSP) concentrations, i.e., 1.5, 3, 4, 6 and 9 mg/ l besides the control treatment on maize growth, yield, yield attributes and chemical components of grains under three irrigation intervals (10, 17 and 24 days between irrigations) at the beginning of the second irrigation till harvest. Randomized complete block design in split plot arrangement was used in three replications, where irrigation intervals were randomly assigned to main plots and (NSP) concentrations were randomly distributed in sub-plots. Obtained results demonstrated that increasing interval between irrigations up to 24 days significantly decreased all the studied traits, except shelling percent and harvest index. Conversely, all the studied characters increased with increasing (NSP) concentrations, where (NSP) applications with 6 or 9 mg/ l produced the highest LAI (4.45 and 4.42) tallest plants (218.33 and 221.90 cm), highest shelling percent (80.73 and 81.83 %), high harvest index (41.57 and 43.32 %) and grain nitrogen content (1.52 and 1.60 %), respectively. However, spraying maize plants with 9 mg/ l (NSP) in resulted the heaviest ears (409.63 g), heaviest grain weight/ ear (335.25 g), 100-kernel weight (37.94 g), maximum grain and biological yields (9.09 and 20.98 t/ ha), respectively. On the other hand, irrigation intervals  (NSP) concentrations interaction had significant effects on all studied traits, where spraying maize plants with 6 or 9 mg/ l, generally alleviate the bad effects of increasing irrigation intervals up to 24 days.