Premium
Water Use and Grain Yield in Drought‐Tolerant Corn in the Texas High Plains
Author(s) -
Hao B.,
Xue Q.,
Marek T. H.,
Jessup K. E.,
Becker J.,
Hou X.,
Xu W.,
Bynum E. D.,
Bean B. W.,
Colaizzi P. D.,
Howell T. A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj15.0133
Subject(s) - water use efficiency , agronomy , hybrid , yield (engineering) , sowing , evapotranspiration , limiting , drought tolerance , mathematics , biology , irrigation , mechanical engineering , ecology , engineering , materials science , metallurgy
Drought is an important factor limiting corn ( Zea mays L.) yields in the Texas High Plains, and adoption of drought‐tolerant (DT) hybrids could be a management tool under water shortage. We conducted a 3‐yr field study to investigate yield, evapotranspiration (ET), and water use efficiency (WUE) in DT hybrids. One conventional (33D49) and 4 DT hybrids (P1151HR, P1324HR, P1498HR, and P1564HR) were grown at three water regimes (I 100 , I 75 , and I 50 , referring to 100, 75, and 50% ET requirement) and three planting densities (PD) (5.9, 7.4, and 8.4 plants m −2 ). Yield (13.56 Mg ha −1 ) and ET (719 mm) were the greatest at I 100 but WUE (2.1 kg m −3 ) was the greatest at I 75 . Although DT hybrids did not always have greater yield and WUE than 33D49 at I 100 , hybrids P1151HR and P1564HR consistently had greater yield and WUE than 33D49 at I 75 and I 50 . Compared to 33D49, P1151HR and P1564HR had 8.6 to 12.1% and 19.1% greater yield at I 75 and I 50 , respectively. Correspondingly, WUE was 9.8 to 11.7% and 20.0% greater at I 75 and I 50 , respectively. Greater PD resulted in greater yield and WUE at I 100 and I 75 but PD did not affect yield and WUE at I 50 . Yield and WUE in greater PD (8.4 plants m −2 ) were 6.3 to 8.3% greater than those in smaller PD (5.9 plants m −2 ). The results of this study demonstrated that proper selection of DT hybrids can increase corn yield and WUE under water‐limited conditions.