The Effect of Deficit and Salinity of Irrigation Water on Yield and Yield Components of Maize (KSC-500) During Different Growth Stages in Ahwaz Climate

This research was carried out to study the effect of deficit irrigation and saline water on yield and yield components of maize (KSC-500) during different growth stages for Ahwaz climatic condition in the farming years 2010-2011. This research performed in three independent experiments according to a randomized complete block design with split plot layout in three levels of irrigation water and three levels of saline water during three growth stages: vegetative (Experiment 1), flowering (Experiment 2) and after flowering (Experiment 3). Irrigation water treatments were I1=100, I2= 75 and I3=50 % of crop water requirement and saline water treatments were S1=Karoon river water, S2=S1+1 and S3=S1+2dS m-1. The results of this study showed that the interaction of deficit and salinity irrigation water did not have any significant effect on factors (number of seeds per ear, 100-grains weight, grain yield, biological yield and harvest index) during all experiments but those factors decreased with increasing water and salinity stress. A maximum grain yield obtained from I2 in experiment 1 with 5.2 ton ha-1. A maximum GY obtained from I1 in other experiments with 5.8 and 6.2 ton ha-1 in experiment 1 and 2, respectively. Also, a maximum GY obtained from S1 in all experiments with 5.3, 5.5 and 6.7 ton ha-1 for experiments 1, 2 and 3, respectively. After  the flowering stage was the most sensitive growth stage to water deficit and salinity stress.