Agriculture & Food, Volume 9, 2021

Abstract: Maize (Zea mays L.) grain yield largely depends on the amount of plant-available water, nutrients, climatic conditions, soil, and genotype. The grain yield formation is closely related to yield components. The field study was set up near Osijek (2020) on silty clay soil with, loamy texture. The different treatments consisted of two irrigation treatments (a1=irrigated; a2=rainfed), and two maize hybrids (b1=ossk515; b2=po216). Surface irrigation was conducted with the use of furrows, while the soil water content was measured with tensiometers placed at a depth of 30 cm on each irrigation treatment. Net irrigation was 280 mm which completely compensated the crop water requirements on irrigated plots. Significantly (p<0.05) higher grain yield (16.44 t ha-1), grain weight/cob (220 g), cob (114.92 cm) and tassel height (181.26 cm) were recorded in irrigated plots. On average across irrigation treatment the significantly (p<0.05) higher grain yield (15.12 t ha-1), grain weight/cob (227 g), grain number/cob (556), hectoliter weight (70.87), and cob weight (291.3 g) were recorded for b2 hybrid (po216). The higher tested variables were recorded for b2 hybrid in both, irrigated and dry plots. The correlation analysis showed a strong positive correlation between grain yield and grain number/cob (r=0.91; p<0.00), grain yield and the position of the cob, i.e. cob height (r=0.65; p<0.05), grain yield, and cob length (r=0.78; p<0.05) and between grain yield and grain moisture (r=0.62; p<0.05). As for yield components, the strong positive correlation was found between cob weight and cob length (r=0.89; p<0.05), cob weight and grain moisture (r=0.73; p<0.05), grain number/cob and tassel height (r=0.82; p<0.5), and between grain weight/cob and grain number/cob (r=0.72; p<0.05).