Although the remobilization of vegetative nitrogen (N) and post-silking N both contribute to grain N in maize (Zea mays L.), their regulation by grain sink strength is poorly understood. Here we use 15N labeling to analyze the dynamic behaviors of both pre- and post-silking N in relation to source and sink manipulation in maize plants. The results showed that the remobilization of pre-silking N...

In this study of the effect of anaesthesia on both the forced silking process and on the properties of the retrieved silk fibres, a monitored forced silking process enables the silking force to be measured during the whole process. Silk samples were tensile-tested and their diameters measured. Force-displacement curves and stress-strain curves were drawn. The evolution of the silking process of...

A new forced silking procedure has been developed that allows measurement of the low forces involved in the silking process and, subsequently, retrieval and tensile testing of the samples spun at the measured silking forces. A strong correlation between silking force and tensile behaviour of spider silk has been established. Fibres spun at high silking force--compared with the conventional yiel...

Understanding the physiological changes associated with high grain yield and high N use efficiency (NUE) is important when increasing the plant density and N rate to develop optimal agronomic management. We tested the hypothesis that high plant densities resulting in crowding stress reduce the ability of plants to use the N supply post-silking, thus decreasing the grain yield and NUE. In 2013 a...

Knowledge of when critical crop stages occur and how the environment affects them should provide useful information for crop management decisions and crop production models. This research evaluated two sources of data for predicting dates of silking and physiological maturityof corn (Zea mays L.). Initial evaluations were conducted using data of an adapted corn hybrid grown on a Typic Agriaquol...

Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica Newman) is an emerging silk-feeding insect found in fields in the lower Corn Belt and Midsouthern United States. Studies were conducted in 2010 and 2011 to evaluate how silk clipping in corn affects pollination and yield parameters. Manually clipping silks once daily had modest effects on yield parameters. Sustained clipping by either manually clipping silks t...

Two hundred S 1 generation selfed seeds of maize (Zea mays L.) along with their parents (nine) and few checks (sixteen) were raised in ear-to-row progenies during post rainy season 2012 with two replications, were evaluated under stress condition by using lattice square design (15x15). The analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences for eighteen characters except relative wate...

A two-year field experiment was conducted to elucidate the adaptive growth mechanism of maize under strip-till (ST) compared with conventional-till (CT). The biomass accumulation ST plants significantly lower than CT until V14 (14th leaf), but restored thereafter one below-ear-node leaf reduced. At silking, nitrogen (N) reduced by 8.3–10.7% CT. During post-silking, vegetative-N remobilization 2...

Exogenous brassinolide (BR) application is a feasible measure to alleviate abiotic stresses on crop productivity. The effects of BR at the silking-stage accumulation, translocation, and remobilization dry matter (DM) nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) waxy maize exposed post-silking high temperature (HT) were studied using Jingkenuo2000 (JKN2000, heat-tolerant) Yunuo7 (YN7, heat-sensit...