Effect of drying temperature on physical properties of flint maize hybrids with different crop managements

Abstract

The objective was to analyse the effect of the following factors: drying, hybrid and crop management on physical properties of two orange-flint maize respect to a dent hybrids, dried naturally and to 70 and 90°C, which were grown in a location of Argentina's main maize-production area during one growing season and with two levels of fertilisation respect to a control treatment. The drying only affected the arithmetic and geometric mean diameters. The length, width, and length/width, length/thickness, length/geometric mean diameter ratios, diameter of the spherical part of the kernel, sphericity and kernel volume depended on the hybrid. The bulk and kernel densities, porosity, thousand kernel weight, and angle of repose were influenced by the interactions drying*hybrid, drying*crop management, and hybrid*crop management. Thus, the flint maize hybrids should be dried to temperatures that not affected their physical properties, since these will determine their behaviour in storage plants.