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PRODUCTION PAPER

Within-Row Plant Spacing Variability Does Not Affect Corn Yield

^a Dep. of Plant Agric., Univ. of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1
^b Ontario Ministry of Agric. and Food, Crop Science Bldg., Univ. of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 3E1

^* Corresponding author (bdeen{at}uoguelph.ca).

Received for publication March 3, 2003. Nonuniform plant spacing within the row in corn (Zea mays L.) may reduce grain yield. To investigate the response of corn to plant spacing variability, experiments were conducted at two locations in south-central Ontario during 2000 and 2001. Six plant spacing treatments, 6.7 to 16.2 cm in standard deviations (SD), were established by planting Roundup Ready corn with increasing proportions of conventional corn seeds and then removing the conventional corn using glyphosate before three-leaf stage. Using SD as well as short gap, long gap, double, and cluster as an index of plant spacing variability, effects of plant spacing variability on corn growth and grain yield were investigated. Averaged across locations and years, grain yield was not significantly affected by plant spacing variability. Plant spacing variability also had no significant effect on leaf number, plant height, leaf area index, and harvest index. There were no correlations between plant spacing variability and stalk lodging and barren or double ears. The lack of strong correlations among plant growth, grain yield, and plant spacing variability indicates that spacing uniformity within the range used in this study is not a significant factor in determining grain yield under commercial conditions and common plant densities used in Ontario.

Abbreviations: LAI, leaf area index • LAR, leaf area ratio • RCI, relative competitive intensity • RR, Roundup Ready • SD, standard deviation

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