IRRIGATION SCHEDULING OF SOME MAIZE CULTIVARS USING CLASS A PAN EVAPORATION IN NORTH DELTA, EGYPT
A. Z. El‐Bably · Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Sciences /Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Sciences · 2007
Two field experiments were carried out during two summer seasons of (2005 and 2006) at Sakha Agricultural Research Station, Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate to investigate irrigation scheduling of maize cultivars using class A pan evaporation in North Delta, Egypt.Irrigation water was applied at 1.2, 1.0 and 0.8 of accumulative pan evaporation (A.P.E), while maize cultivars used were hybrid single crosses (S.C.) 10, 122 and 124.The results showed that irrigation scheduling at 1.2 of accumulative pan evaporation (A.P.E) significantly increased plant height by 4.4%, ear length by 4.6%, number of rows/ear by 16.7%, number of grains/row by 7.3%, 100-grain weight by 6.6%, yield of plant by 17.1% and grain yield./fed. by 18.1% compared to irrigation at 0.8 of A.P.E.Maize cv.S.C. 10 significantly surpassed maize cvs.S.C. 122 and S.C. 124 in the mean values of plant height, ear length, number of grains/row, 100-grain weight, yield of plant and grains yield/fed.However, maize cv.S.C. 122 was superior in the number of rows/ear to maize cvs.S.C. 10 and S.C. 124.Seasonal water use values were 57.74, 52.16 and 47.60 cm for irrigated maize plants at 1.2, 1.0 and 0.8 of A.P.E., respectively.Irrigation at 1.2 of A.P.E.resulted in higher amount of irrigation water applied to be 74.3 cm distributed on 7 irrigations, followed by irrigation at 1.0 to be 67.2 cm distributed on 6 ones, and irrigation at 0.8 of A.P.E. was 57.1 cm distributed on 5 ones.It was also found that the intervals of irrigation were 21, 14, 14, 13, 14 and 16 days for irrigation at 1.2 of A.P.E. and 21, 16, 18, 18 and 19 days for irrigation at 1.0 of A.P.E. and 21, 21, 22 and 25 days for irrigation at 0.8 of A.P.E., respectively.Lower frequent irrigation due to irrigation at 0.8 of APE resulted in a significantly higher water use efficiencies compared to the other two irrigation treatments.Maize cv.S.C. 10 significantly increased water use efficiencies compared to maize cvs.S.C. 122 and 124 due to higher yielding.Most of the consumed water was removed from the upper layer (0-15 cm) of the soil profile because of root concentrations and its activity.At the same time, soil moisture extraction pattern by maize roots was not affected by the cultivars.Linear equation slopes between irrigation water applied and grain yield, water use efficiency and water utilization efficiency were 44.0, -0.20 and -0.41, respectively.It was concluded that irrigation scheduling in maize based on 1.2 of accumulative pan evaporation produced high yield in North Delta, Egypt.