CORN DEVELOPMENT AND YIELD COMPONENTS UNDER THE ACTION OF BIOSTIMULANT SPRAYING

CORN DEVELOPMENT AND YIELD COMPONENTS UNDER THE ACTION OF BIOSTIMULANT SPRAYING[pic 1]

Santos HL1; Sciencia LM1; Candido IB1, Carnietto MRA1, Silva MA1.

1Laboratory of Ecophysiology Applied to Agriculture – LECA, School of Agricultural Sciences, Sao Paulo State University - UNESP, 3780 Universitaria Ave, Botucatu, SP, 18.610-307, Brazil ([e-mail]).

Corn is the second most important crop in grain production in Brazil, for having a wide range of cultivation, from small to large farms, in addition to being one of the main inputs for the non- ruminant animal production chain. However, the production costs related to the applied inputs have increased over recent years, and adverse climatic conditions may affect the yield even with the fact that corn has a great genetic variability, therefore, it is necessary to obtain increased productivity. Given that, the use of biostimulants can promote plant growth, since it causes physiological changes in plants, better exploring its genetic potential and vigor, improving nutritional efficiency and, consequently, increasing yield. In this context, the objective of this work was to evaluate the action of biostimulants applied via foliar on the yield and corn growth parameters. The experiment was conducted in an experimental area of School of Agricultural Sciences − UNESP, in randomized block design, with four treatments [control (T1), Stimulate 250 mL ha-1 applied in V5 (T2), Cropvit AG 500 mL ha-1 applied in V5 (T3), Expert Grow 250 mL ha-1 applied in V5 and VT (T4)] and four replicates. The spraying of the products was carried out at different crop development stages, through a CO2 pressurized sprayer, using a 100 L ha-1 spray volume. The yield components were evaluated after harvest. The data were submitted to analysis of variance and the averages were compared by the Tukey test (P <0.05). There were no differences in the stem diameter at 60 days after planting (DAP), ear length, number of rows per ear and 1000 grains mass among treatments. Though, from 60 to 90 DAP, the biostimulants provided an average increase in plant height of 13.80%, whereas in the control the plants showed an increase of 10.60% in its height, in addition, the formulations increased grain productivity, when compared to the control. It was concluded that the spraying of Stimulate provided the highest productivity, thus, its application can be indicated in the V5 phenological stage.

Key words: Zea mays L., foliar application, productivity, biostimulation.

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