Interaction of Water and Salinity Stresses on Yield and Yield Components of Maize during Different Stages in Ahvaz Climate Conditions

This research was carried out to study the effect of water and salinity stresses on yield and yield components of maize (KSC-260) during different growth stages in farming years 2009-2010. The research consists of three levels of irrigation water (100, 75 and 50 % treatments I1 to I3) and three levels of salinity irrigation water (salinity of water river (S1), S1+ 1.5 and S1+3 dS/m treatments S1 to S3) during three growth stages as vegetative (Experiment 1), flowering (Experiment 2) and after flowering (Experiment 3). The experiments were arranged according to a randomized complete block design with split plot layout. The results of this study showed that the interaction of water and salinity stresses had not any significant effect on factors (number of seeds per ear, 100-grains weight, grain yield, biological yield and harvest index) during all experiments. I3 and S3 treatments showed respectively 20, 23, 27.5 and 20.5, 26.4, 13.2 % reduction with respect to I1 and S1 treatments in experiment 1, experiment 2 and experiment 3, respectively. Flowering stage was the most sensitive growth stage to water and salinity stresses.