Effect of Irrigation Intervals on Growth, Productivity and Quality of Some Yellow Maize Genotypes

TWO FIELD experiments were done at Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Menoufia University, Shebin El- Kom, Egypt, during 2018 and 2019 seasons to study the effect of 3 irrigation intervals, i.e., irrigation every 12 (I1), 17 (I2) and 22 days (I3) on growth, productivity and quality of 6 yellow maize genotypes (G), i.e., S.C 178, S.C 176, S.C 168, T.W.C 368, T.W.C 360 and T.W.C 352. The results could be summarized as follows:1- Increasing irrigation intervals from 12 up to 17 and 22 days significantly decreased number and area of leaves and leaves, stem and total dry weight/plant, total chlorophyll, relative water content (RWC), plant height, length and diameter of ear, number and weight of grains/ear, 100 grain weight as well as grain, stover and biological yields/fed, protein and oil % and yields/fed, but significantly increased proline content in leaves in both seasons.2- S.C 168 G surpassed the other genotypes in area and dry weight of leaves/plant, grain yield/fed, crop and harvest indices as well as protein yield/fed. T.W.C 368 G was superior in stem and total dry weight/plant, plant height, ear diameter, no.of grains/ear,100-grain weight as well as stover and biological yields/fed. However, S.C 168 G and T.W.C 368 G recorded the best values of RWC, no.of ears/plant, grain weight/ear, protein% and oil yield/fed as compared with the other genotypes. The highest significant values of proline content and no.of leaves/plant were obtained by T.W.C 352 G and T.W.C 360 G, respectively in both seasons.3- Maize genotypes S.C 168 as well as T.W.C 360 and T.W.C 352 under I2 and T.W.C 368 under either I2 or I3 had the lowest values of relative yield reduction and drought suS.Ceptibility index (< 1), indicating that those genotypes are relatively drought tolerant genotypes compared to other tested genotypes in our experiment condition.