Effect of Iron on Yield of Corn (Zea mays L.) in Drought Stress

Abstract

Abstract In hot and arid regions, drought stress is considered as one of the main reasons for yield reduction. To study the effect of drought stress, iron spray on the yield and yield components of corn, an experiment was carried out during the crop seasons of 2013 on research Farm in Faizabad of Iran, as a split plot within randomized complete block design with three replications. The main plots with irrigation factor and four levels were considered: level A) 50 ml evaporation from pan evaporation; level B) 100 ml evaporation from pan evaporation; level C) 150 ml evaporation from pan evaporation and level D) 200 ml evaporation from pan evaporation. Sub plots were considered with iron spray in three levels, included level A) 80 g/ha, level B) 130 g/ha and level C) 180 g/ha. The drought stress reduced seed yield, the 1000-kernels weight (TKW), the number of seeds per ear, the number of seeds per row in ear, the number of rows per ear about 39%, 6%, 31%, 14% and 27% less than control treatment, respectively. Using iron, as compared with control treatment, causes the increase of 1000-kernels weight from 295 to 311 g and the increase of seed yield from 5188 to 7078. The results obtained from the present research showed that iron spray has fairly improved the effects caused by drought stress.