PRODUCTIVE PARAMETERS OF MAIZE UNDER WATER DEFICIT IN DIFFERENT PHENOLOGICAL PHASES IN THE BRAZILIAN SEMI-ARID

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of water deficit in different phenological phases of maize in the semiarid region of Alagoas, Brazil. The experiment was conducted at the Federal Institute of Alagoas, Campus Piranhas, from February to June 2019. From the data collected from the plants during the conduct of the experiment, the following steps were performed: analysis of the effect of climatic elements on the crop, determination of productivity in each treatment, evaluation of growth data and ear variables under the effect of the deficit water, estimation of crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and verification of the level of impact of water stress caused in each phonological phase of the culture. The plants subjected to water deficit in the tasseling and flowering phases suffered variation in the number of grains per ear and had low yield when compared to the plants submitted to the farinaceous grain phase. The evapotranspiration of the crop, temperature and humidity did not influence the thermal limitation for the development of maize throughout the cycle. Plants submitted to water deficit during the planting and flowering phase were less productive.