Crop Weather Relationships of Maize (Zea mays L.) under Different Sowing Windows and Hybrids

A field experiment was conducted to know the crop weather relationships under different sowing windows and hybrids in maize at the College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga, Karnataka, during Kharif 2015. The experimental site is situated at 14°01 to 14°11 North latitude and 75°401 to 75°421 East longitude with an altitude of 650 meters above mean sea level. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with a factorial concept and replicated thrice. There were eight treatment combinations, including four-date of sowing (15th June, 30th June, 15th July and 30th July) and two hybrids (PAC-740 and CP-818). Maize sown on 15th June recorded significantly higher grain yield (7632.57 kg ha-1) as compared to other dates of sowing and among the hybrids, CP-818 (7060.72 kg ha-1) was found superior than PAC-740 (6776.93 kg ha-1). Grain yield had a highly significant positive correlation with weather parameters such as cumulative pan evaporation (0.85**), cumulative solar radiation (0.83**), cumulative rainfall (0.79**) and average relative humidity (0.75**) during silking to maturity stage. The variation in grain yield was primarily affected by average maximum temperature (69%) followed by cumulative sunshine hours (68%) and cumulative pan evaporation (66%) during sowing to maturity and lower variation was observed in average relative humidity (54%) during silking to maturity. From the present findings it can be inferred that sowing maize on June 15th with CP-818 hybrid can be a better option to get higher productivity in southern transition zone of Karnataka.