Yield and Agronomic Characters of Tropical Maize (Zea mays L.) Cultivars under Different Irrigation Regimes

Drought spells are unpredictable under tropical conditions and can occur at every growth stage of the maize plants. Little is known about the reactions of tropical maize cultivars to water shortage. A set of Thai cultivars was examined in the field during the dry season. Three stress situations were imposed: prolonged stress throughout the growing season, pre- and post-anthesis stress. Pre-anthesis water stress delayed flowering and especially the data of silking. Thus, the anthesis-silking interval was wider. Prolonged water stress decreased grain yield mainly due to a low number of kernels and/or thousand kernel weight (TKW). Post-anthesis stress mainly reduced TKW grain set per ear. Relief from pre-anthesis stress increased grain yield by a grater number of kernels and higher TKW as compared to prolonged stress. Genotypic differences were high for the anthesis-silking interval following pre-anthesis stress. Low yielding, early but generally drought-stable cultivars existed as well as cultivars which were generally high yielding even under water stress because of a good residual yield. Some cultivars were resistant to pre-anthesis stress but not to post-anthesis stress and vice versa. It can be concluded that ample genotypic variability exists for adaptation to varying situations of pre-and post-anthesis stress within tropical maize cultivars.