Desenvolvimento e produtividade em híbridos de milho em resposta ao uso de diferentes espaçamentos em microclima do semiárido

Abstract

Corn (Zea mays L.), is a plant belonging to the Poaceae family, has photosynthetic metabolism of type C4, where it is characterized by high productive potential, and commonly cultivated in several regions of the world, being widely used in family farming and agroindustry. The objective of this work was to evaluate the agronomic performance and productivity of corn, cultivated in microclimate of the Brazilian Semiarid, due to different spacings. The experiment was conducted at the Chã de Jardim Experimental Farm, belonging to the Center for Agrarian Sciences of the Federal University of Paraíba (CCA/UFPB), in Areia PB, Brazil. The experimental design was in randomized blocks (DBC), with four replications and six treatments in factorial scheme 2 x 3 (two corn hybrids (H1 and H2)) and three types of spacings (0.4, 0.6 and 0.8 m between lines). The plots consisted of four lines of 5 m. The evaluations were performed on the two central lines, not taking into account the first three plants of the edges (useful area of 5 m²). Morphological characteristics and yield components were evaluated. The data obtained were submitted to the Shapiro-Wilk test at 5% significance to determine their normality. Variance analysis was performed using the F test and the means compared by the Tukey test at 5% probability for comparison of hybrids in the spacing experiment. Spacings do not alter grain yield in the local microclimate conditions of the Paraibano Semiarid, but H1 presented the numbers of rows and grains per row, indicating superiority in production characteristics when compared to H2, and the diameter of the stem and the number of grains per row the variance analysis showed significant difference.