Lodging of Summer Maize and the Effects on Grain Yield

Abstract

The apparent characters of lodging maize plant,the effects of planting density,variety selection,and nitrogen-potassium combined application on stem-lodging resistance and grain yield were analyzed.The results showed that there was significant difference among different maize hybrids.Plant height and ear height should not be regarded as the major indexes to evaluate the lodging resistance of maize,and the stalk breaking resistance of the hybrid was strong which was characterized as a thick basal stem and a small value of internodes length/diameter.The lodging resistance of summer maize decreased with the planting density increasing.The nitrogen-potassium combining application could improve the lodging resistance effectively.The lodging grain number per spike,1 000-grain weight and grain weight per spike after silking in one weeks time could decrease 19.4%-30.2%,29.6%-31.8% and 45.0%-50.8%,respectively.