Responses of baby corn yields and water footprints to different fertilizer and water supply rates

Abstract

Baby corn (Zea may L.) is one of the most significant and lucrative crops grown in Thailand. Moreover, Thailand has exported the largest amount of baby corns in the world. The average export income is 1,000 million baht each year; whereas farmers earn average profits of between 400 and 500 baht per rai for baby corn cultivation. Such income levels were lower than expected due to increases in production factors. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the appropriate irrigation and fertilizer usage on Rangsit soil series in order to create higher yields for baby corn production. The experiment design was split plots in randomized complete block design with three replications. Treatments consisted of three main plots: 1) 40% allowable depletion content (ADC), 2) 60% ADC, and 3) 80% ADC. These were in combination with four sub plots: 1) no fertilization, 2) 15-5-5 kg rai-1 (N-P2O5-K2O), 3) 7.5-2.5-2.5 kg rai-1, and 4) 7.5-7.5-7.5 kg rai-1. The results found that 40% ADC irrigation in combination with 15-5-5 kg/rai fertilizer application yielded the highest pod weight, water use efficiency, and irrigation water use efficiency when compared with those of other treatments; however, these were not statistically significant. For water footprint, the amounts of green, blue and total water footprints were the lowest when compared with those of other treatments; these were statistically significant.