Impact of planting methods and nitrogen scheduling on productivity of spring maize

Abstract:

Nearly 43% of India’s maize area is planted during the spring window, yet average productivity seldom crosses 4.5 t ha⁻¹ — well below the genetic ceiling of modern hybrids. This research examined how three planting methods (flat bed, ridge-and-furrow, and raised bed) combined with four nitrogen-scheduling patterns (100% basal; 50% basal + 50% at V6; 50% basal + 25% V6 + 25% tasseling; 75% basal + 25% tasseling) influenced the growth and grain yield of spring hybrid maize at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. The experiment followed a split-plot design with planting method as the main plot and nitrogen schedule as the subplot, replicated three times during spring 2023. Ridge-and-furrow planting produced the highest grain yield (8.74 t ha⁻¹), outperforming flat bed by 14.3% and raised bed by 7.8%. Among nitrogen schedules, the three-way split (50-25-25) returned the best yield (9.12 t ha⁻¹), surpassing the full-basal treatment by 21.6%. The ridge-and-furrow × three-way-split combination reached 9.67 t ha⁻¹. These results point to split nitrogen application on ridges as a practical route to closing the spring-maize yield gap in central India.