MAIZE (ZEA MAYS) PRODUCTION UNDER DIFFERENT IRRIGATION TREATMENTS: INVESTIGATING THE GERMINATION AND EARLY GROWTH

Maize (Zea mays) is one of Pakistan’s most important cereal crops and is widely used both for human consumption and for livestock feed. Seed germination, its morphological growth and yield depends on irrigation sequence. Rainfall is the only source of irrigation in Potohar region, Rawalpindi which mainly restrained sustainable agricultural practices. Therefore, a study was planned to investigate the effect of different irrigation frequencies (1-day, 3-days and 5-days interval) on germination and early growth of maize at Koont research station, PMAS-Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi during 2019 and 2020 crop seasons. The results elucidated that the continuous application of enough moisture via irrigation in 3-day interval enhance relatively higher (50%) percentage of germination followed by one day interval (43.75%). The enough moisture at five-day interval enhanced germination performance (68.75%). No significance effect was found on number of maize seedlings emergence while a considerable variation was observed on their emergence date, that the early emergence of maize seeds was enhanced in 1-day interval. As irrigation frequency decreased from 1 to 5 days interval, seedling emergence was delayed significantly (p<0.05). This indicated that a continuous application of enough water to the soil and maintaining soil moisture enhance the emergence of maize seeds to be takes placed earlier.