SPACING EFFECT ON LEAF AREA FORMATION IN MAIZE: 1. CORRELATION STUDIES IN GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT, YIELD COMPONENTS AND YIELD

An experiment was conducted at the Kogi State University, Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria on correlation studies on growth, yield components and yield of maize (Zea mays) sown to two spacing: 20 x 75 and 25 x 75 cm. The focus of the trial was to ascertain the effect of plant spacing on leaf area (LA) and the attendant implications for maize growth, yield components and yield; noting that LA plays an important role in influencing light interception, thus impacting on crop growth and yield. The results obtained for 20 x 75 cm, show that LA had positive and significant correlation coefficient (r) with all the growth and yield characters measured such as leaf number (0.987), plant height (0.992), cob weight (0.998), total seed weight (0.997) and 100 seed weight (0.995). From the correlation analysis carried out, the influence of leaf area was reflected most highly significantly on the final cob weight which was found to be = 0.998. Spacing the maize crop 25 x 75 cm, the highest correlation value (0.678) was found to occur between LA and seeds/cob. Other characters such as plant height, leaf numbers, also contributed positively to the final grain yield. All these characters exhibited perfect and significant correlation with Leaf Area. Better responses between LA, growth and yield parameters were however, obtained when the maize crop was spaced 20 x 75 cm as against 25 x 75 cm, an indications that farmers stand to gain from narrower spacing up to 20 x 75 cm. Thus, it is recommended that better maize yield can be obtained using narrower spacing of 20 x 75 cm as against the current 25 x 75cm.