5. Influence of Tillage and Poultry Manure on the Physical Properties of Grain and Yield Attributes of Spring Maize (<i>Zea mays</i> L.)

Abstract

Grains are the economical part of maize that demand proper management practices to achieve the crop potential. The study explored the influence of different tillage practices and poultry manure levels on the grain length, breadth, area, grains weight per cob and grains yield per m2of maize at Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, during spring 2010 and 2011. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with split plot arrangement, having four tillage practices as main plot treatments, zero tillage (direct seed sowing with dibbler), minimum tillage (one cultivation with normal cultivator followed by planking), conventional tillage (2–3 cultivations with normal cultivator followed by planking) and deep tillage (two deep ploughing with chisel plough + one cultivation with normal cultivator followed by planking). Sub plot treatments were three poultry manure levels; control (no poultry manure), poultry manure at the amount of 5 Mg ha^-1 and poultry manure at 10 Mg ha^-1. Data indicated that the deep tillage practice significantly improved the maize grain physical properties and yield over the other tillage practices in both years of study. Increasing order of poultry manure dose treatments produced the good and healthy seeds over the control treatment. A positive correlation between grain yield, physical properties of maize grain and grains weight per cob was recorded.