Response of Maize to Nutrients Foliar Application Under Water Deficit Stress Conditions

Problem statement: To investigate the effect of nutrient application on agronomical characteristic and water use efficiency under water deficit stress of hybrid maize 704, an experiment was arranged in a split plot factorial based on a c omplete randomized block design with four replicate s in the research station of Islamic Azad University- Arak Branch, Iran in 2007. Approach: Main factors studied were four irrigation levels including irrig ation equal to crop water requirement, water defici t stress at eight- leaf stage (V 8), stage of blister (R 2) and stage of filling grain in the main plot. Comb ined levels of selenium treatment (without and with appl ication 20 g ha -1 ) were applied 2 weeks before execution of water stress treatment and micronutrie nts (without and with application) that was provided by specific fertilizer for maize called B iomin, which contained Fe, Zn, Cu, Mn, B, Mo and Mg in the form of foliar application at six-leaf st age and 1 week before tasseling stage at the ra te of 2 L ha -1 were situated in sub plots. Results: Results indicated that effect of water deficit str ess on 1000 grain weight, grain yield, harvest index and water use efficiency at different growth stages was significant at 1% level. Water deficit stress decre ased grain yield 33% in grain filling stage as compared with control. Using selenium increased mentioned traits but the increase was non significant. Effects of twofold interactions of water deficit st ress and selenium showed that using selenium in water deficit stress condition increased measured traits as compared with treatment without selenium. A negative antagonistic interaction was found between selenium and micronutrients on some measured traits. In between treatments of water deficit stre ss, highest grain yield (8159.33 kg ha -1 ) was obtained from combined treatment of water deficit stress at eight-leaf stage with selenium application and without micronutrients which compared with treatment of irrigation equal to crop water requirement, without selenium and microelements did not differ significant. Conclusion: According to the results of experiment, using microelements in optimum water availability and using selenium in water deficit stress condition increased mentioned traits as comp ared to treatments control.