Morphological traits of maize affected by seed vigor and water limitation

An experiment was conducted as factorial based on RCB design with three replicates in 2010 to investigate the effects of seed vigor (three seed lots with acceptable normal germinations of 98%, 92% and 88%) and different irrigation treatments (irrigation after 70, 90, 110 and 130 mm evaporation from class A pan, respectively) on some morphological characteristics of maize (cv. KSC301). Mean emergence percentage was decreased, but plant height, ear length and diameter and grains per ear of plants significantly increased with decreasing seed vigor. The higher plant height and ear length and diameter of plants from low vigor seeds were attributed to the great availability of environmental resources for these plants, due to the low stand establishment (Figure1), compared with high density of plants from high vigor seed lot. Decreasing water availability led to 10.9-14.2 % reduction in plant height. The other traits were not significantly affected by this factor, due to mild water stress.