Published in Scientific Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LXIV, Issue 1
Written by Dorina BONEA, Ioana Claudia DUNĂREANU
In Oltenia region, maize productivity is highly affected by increasing average temperature and the uneven distribution of rainfall. The suitable hybrid is one of the main adaptation strategies for maize crop for managing the climatic changes. In this study, a field experiment was conducted in rain-fed conditions during 2018 and 2019 at ARDS Simnic to evaluate the accumulated growing degree days (GDD), phenothermal index (PTI) and heat use efficiencies (HUE) at different phenological stages (emergence, tasseling, silking and physiological maturity) and grain yield (GY) of three maize hybrids. The results revealed that among different thermal indices, GDD, PTI and HUE at physiological maturity stage better explained the variations in grain yield across the different growing seasons (96.6%, 93.1% and 99.7%, respectively). Therefore, these thermal indices could be used as the best indices for selection of heat tolerant hybrids for this region. Among the studied hybrids, Pioneer P0216 and Monsanto DK 5068 produced higher yields while accumulated maximum GDD, PTI and HUE at different phenological stages.
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