Effect of deficit irrigation and partial root zone drying on Morphological and physiological characteristics of corn

Water resources are limited worldwide. Deficit irrigation is a strategy to deal with this limitation. To determine the best method for corn deficit irrigation one study was conducted. This research was conducted on Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman in the spring of 2010. A completely random experimental design with one control and 18 deficit irrigation treatments in three blocks was considered. Treatments were: mild water stress (irrigation with %75 ETP)، high water stress (irrigation with %50 ETP)، fixed every other furrow irrigation treatment (C) and three partial root zone drying (Change the wet furrows in every irrigation (D1)، Change the wet furrows in every other irrigation (D2) and change the wet furrows in every second irrigations (D3)). Every treatment was conducted in three growth stage of corn (all periods of growth (T)، vegetative growth stage (M1) and reproductive growth stage (M2)). The highest biological yield was equal to 32431 kg per hectare was belonged to CM1 treatment and the lowest was 17654 kg per hectare belonged to D3M2 treatment. Water use efficiency (km biological yield per cubic meter of water) for the S (irrigation with %100 ETP) treatments was equal to 2. 57 and for D2T treatments was equal to 6. The results showed that the partial root zone drying with two intervals irrigation (28-day) was the best choice to apply deficit irrigation for corn.