The Effect of Drought Stress on Agrophysiological Traits of Corn (Zea mays L.) Cultivars in Khoy Condition

Over use of water and unnecessary limitation irrigation water, both affects economic production of corn. Therefore, it is necessary to use different irrigation regimes in order to determine the most suitable irrigation interval with minimum effect on yield. To study the effect of different irrigation regimes on forage and grain yield of three varieties of maize, an experiment was carried out at the Research Center of Khoy, a province of west Azarbaijan, in 2008. The experiment was carried out with four replications in an form of split plot based on randomized complete block design. The main plot consisted of four levels of irrigation intervals (I1, I2, I3 and I4) of corn plots, irrigated after 60, 90, 120 and 150 (mm) evapotranspiration pan. Subplots consisted of three varieties of corn (SC704, Maxima524, Jeta600). In this experiment, different features of maize varieties were analyzed and measured at milk stage (R3) as forage. Results showed that by increasing irrigation cycle and as a result decreasing water using in four levels of irrigation, traits like forage yield, ear weight, plant height, stem and leaf weight, ear leaf area and relative water content have decrease in treatment according to decrease in water used. Among three the varieties under study, Maxima524 due to lower growing period as compared to the other two varieties, used low water volumes while yielded equal to the other two varieties. Overall, results showed that Maxima524 based on irrigation after 90 mm evaporation is found to be low water user against optimal performance.