Impact of soil moisture stress during the silk emergence and grain-filling in maize

ORCID

Bheemanahalli: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9325-4901

MSU Affiliation

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Department of Plant and Soil Sciences; Geosystems Research Institute

Creation Date

2025-11-19

Abstract

Suboptimal soil moisture during the growing season often limits maize growth and yield. However, the growth stage-specific responses of maize to soil moisture regimes have not been thoroughly investigated. This study investigated the response of maize to five different soil moisture regimes, that are, 0.25, 0.20, 0.15, 0.10, and 0.05 m3 m−3 volumetric water content (VWC), during flowering and grain-filling stages. Sub-optimal soil moisture at the flowering and grain-filling stages reduced ear leaf stomatal conductance by 73 and 64%, respectively. An increase in stress severity caused significant reductions in ear leaf chlorophyll content and greenness-associated vegetation indices across growth stages. Fourteen days of soil moisture stress during flowering delayed silk emergence, reduced silk length (19%), and silk fresh weight (34%). Furthermore, sub-optimal soil moisture caused a significant reduction in both kernel number (53%) and weight (54%). Soil moisture stress at the flowering had a direct impact on kernel number and an indirect effect on kernel weight. During grain-filling, disruption of ear leaf physiology resulted in a 34% decrease in kernel weight and a 43% decrease in kernel number. Unlike grain-filling, treatments at the flowering significantly reduced kernel starch (3%) and increased protein by 29%. These findings suggest that developing reproductive stage stress-tolerant hybrids with improved resilience to soil moisture stress could help reduce the yield gap between irrigated and rainfed maize.

Publication Date

8-1-2023

Publication Title

Physiologia Plantarum

Publisher

Wiley

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS
 

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1111/ppl.14029