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Optimum leaf excision increases the biomass accumulation and seed yield of maize plants under different planting patterns
Author(s) -
Raza Muhammad A.,
Feng Ling Y.,
Khalid Muhammad H. B.,
Iqbal Nasir,
Meraj Tehseen A.,
Hassan Muhammad J.,
Ahmed Shoaib,
Chen Yuan K.,
Feng Yang,
Wenyu Yang
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
annals of applied biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1744-7348
pISSN - 0003-4746
DOI - 10.1111/aab.12514
Subject(s) - intercropping , biology , interception , canopy , sowing , agronomy , crop , leaf area index , photosynthesis , biomass (ecology) , field experiment , horticulture , botany , ecology
Without developing new agronomic practices, present rates of improvement in seed yields of cereal crops globally are insufficient to fulfil the estimated increasing food demand for 2050 and beyond. Intercropping is one of the agricultural practices that can lead to greater crop yields. However, there exists leaf redundancy for maize in intercropping systems, and the top canopy leaves shade more competent leaves at middle strata of maize plants. Therefore, this work aimed to elucidate the effect of leaf excision treatments in maize to understand the optimum leaf area of maize plants under a maize–soybean relay‐intercropping system (MS R ) and a sole cropping system (SM). The effects of four‐leaf excision treatments (T 1 , 0; T 2 , 2; T 3 , 4; T 4 , 6 leaves excised from the top of maize plants until 7 days after silking) on light interception, leaf area index (LAI), photosynthetic characteristics, total biomass accumulation at blistering stage (BS), dough stage (DS) and physiological maturity (PM), and seed yield of maize were investigated through field experiments for 2 years under MS R and SM. Results showed that, under MS R and SM, as compared to control (T 1 ), optimum excision of leaves (T 2 ) from the top of maize plants significantly improved the light interception (by 25, 18 and 16% at BS, DS and PM, respectively) to lower strata leaves and accelerated the biomass partitioning to maize seeds (by 13 and 12% at DS and PM, respectively). Importantly, plants under T 2 exhibited higher green leaf area than control, that is, excision the top two leaves led to an increase in LAI at PM by 10%, suggesting that leaf senescence under T 2 was delayed which enhanced the photosynthetic rate at PM by 7% in 2017 and 6% in 2018. Relative to T 1 , maize under T 2 produced 19 and 13% higher maize yield under MS R and SM, respectively, and relay‐cropped maize had 90% of SM seed yield. These results suggest that by manipulating the canopy structure of maize plants we can enhance the biomass accumulation and seed yield of maize crops under MS R and SM.