Influence of Silicon Fertilization on Maize Performance Under Limited Water Supply

Silicon (Si) is a naturally occurring beneficial nutrient which modulates plant growth and development events and has been known to improve the crop tolerance to abiotic stresses. A pot experiment was conducted during 2011 at the Postgraduate Research Station (PARS), University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. We evaluated growth of two maize hybrids P-33H25 and FH-810 under well watered and water deficit situations as affected by Si application. Silicon was added in soil @ 100 mg/kg. Plants were grown with two levels of soil water content viz. 100 % and 60 % of field capacity. Water deficiency in soil significantly reduces agro-morphological and physiological attributes of maize plants. In drought-stressed plants of hybrid P-33H25 and FH-810 silicon application significantly increased plant height (129.04 cm and 120.00 cm), stem diameter (1.23 cm and 1.22 cm), number of leaves (13.26 and 13.20), cob length (13.96 cm and 12.83 cm), number of grains/cob (235.05 and 215.35), 100 grain weight (19.65 g and 18.51 g), grain yield (46.18 g and 39.88 g) and biological yield (115.46 g and 102.34 g) along with improvement in photosynthetic rate and lowered transpiration rate, respectively. In conclusion, silicon application to drought stressed maize plants improved the growth and yield which could be attributed to improved photosynthetic rate and lowered transpiration.