Herbage from Excess Maize Plants

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University during June October 1997. The experimental design was randomized complete block with 4 replications. The excess seeds were deliberately sown (25x37.5 cm spacing) more than the normal seed requirement (25x75.5 cm spacing) The excess plants were later thinned out and fed to stock. The thinning dates of the excess plants were at 17, 24 and 31 days after emergence. In the fourth treatment, there was no thinning of the excess plants (check plot) and in the fifth treatment no excess seeds were sown (25x75 cm spacing)

There was no significant effect of thinning dates at 17 and 24 days on yield of the main crop, but delayed thinning 31 days depressed the yield by 27% from the normal density plot (5.26 t/ha) The check plot gave the lowest yield, 2.79 t/ha. The herbage yield increased as the thinning date was delayed. The herbage yield 1075 kg/ha with 3.58# N was recorded from the 17 days treatment compared with 2,400 t/ha with 2.90# N obtained from the 31 days treatment. The LAI and light interception were recorded.