EFFECT OF SOWING DATES AND PLANT DENSITY OF GROWTHCHARACTERSTIC AND FORAGE OF TWO CORN VARIETIES

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted out in spring season 2008 at two locations. The first at Agricultural Research Station at the Dept. of Field Crops, Univ. of Mosul and the second one at Twabzawa Village in Bashika (25 Km East Mosul) to study the effect of four sowing dates (20/3, 5/4, 20/4 and 5/5), three plant densities (250, 333 and 500 thousand plant/ha) and an growth yield of two corn varieties (Bohoth 106 and Rabea) were used for each experiment. The experiment was applied by using Split-Plot Design in Randomized Complete Block Design by using three replications of each treatment. The important obtained results can be summarized as follows: All growth and yield characteristics were significantly affected by sowing dates of corn at Colleges Station Research while at twabzawa whereas the following characteristic; stem diameter, the dry weight of stem did not show significantly effected at Twabzawa location. Most of the growth and yield characters at the second sowing date 5/4 were superior to the same characters at other sowing dates at the Collage Station location, whereas at Twabzawa location the significant superiority for most growth and yield characters was at the 1st sowing dates (3/20). The results revealed that all growth characteristic were significantly affected by plant density at both locations. The plant density 500000 Plant/ha gave a higher values for yield at both locations. The results showed that there were no significant differences between the variety Bohoth 106 and Rabea for all characteristic at both location except that for plant height at Collage location whereas the superiority was for the variety Bohoth 106 in total dry yield and weight stems at Collage location only. The results showed the significant superiority of the Collage location in all growth and yield characters over that at Twabzawa location, except for the stem diameter. The interaction between sowing date 5/4 and plant density 500000 plant/ha gave a higher values for all yield characteristic at College Research Station.