Effect of plant density on yield and yield components of maize in Botswana

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of plant density on the yield and yield components in Kalahari Early Pearl Maize variety. The experiment consisted of a completely randomized design with eighteen treatments (6 inter-row spacing by 3 intra-row spacing). The inter-row spacing was 0.75m, 0.90m, 1.05m, 1.20m, 1.35m, and 1.50m, while the intra-row spacing was 0.30m, 0.40m and 0.50m. Plant height, flag leaf area, number of grains per cob, one thousand grain mass, number of cobs per plant, cob length and grain yield increased with decrease in plant density. Plant density significantly affected plant height, flag leaf area, number of grains per cob, one thousand grain mass, cob length and grain yield. The highest grain yield of 2779.80 kg/ha was produced at 16,670 plants ha-1 (T12) and the lowest grain yield of 1073.30 kg/ha was produced at 44,440 plants ha-1.