Effects of drought stress and potassium on growth and yield of sweet corn

• Main Author: Evelyn Koay Shin Rou
• Format: Academic Exercise
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sabah 2018
• Subjects: S Agriculture (General)
• Online Access: https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/24457/1/Effects%20of%20drought%20stress%20and%20potassium%20on%20growth%20and%20yield%20of%20sweet%20corn.pdf; https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/24457/

The demand for com is increasing due to the increase in human and livestock populations of Malaysia. Drought stress and fertilizer management are problems of com cultivation and production. In this study, the growth and yield performance of Thai Supersweet com variety were compared at different levels of drought stress and potassium rates. A pot experiment was conducted in 2017 inside an insect proof net-house of Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture (FSA), Universiti Malaysia Sabah. The experimental design used was completely randomized design (CRD) and each combination of treatment consisted of four replicates. The drought stress treatments were soil moisture content (SMC) of 29.00% (control), 14.50% and 7.25% whereas the rates of potassium fertilizer were 30, 60 and 90 kg/ha. The data was analyzed using Two-way ANOVA and LSD was applied to compare means. No interaction effect (p>0.05) were observed in stem girth, leaf number, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, cob length, cob diameter, cob girth and chlorophyll content. However, the plant height, first cob height from soil surface, fresh cob weight, grain number per cob, 100 grain weight and free praline content shown interaction effect (p<0.05) among the treatments. It was concluded that 7.25% SMC+ 30 kg/ha K (T3Kl) was sufficient for irrigation and fertilization for the com plants as there was no significant difference observed when compared to the control treatment, 29.00% SMC + 60 kg/ha K (T1K2). Further research should be conducted to study the drought stress and potassium effects on other com varieties and in open field trial.