| Effects of planting density on the growth, antioxidant enzyme activity, yield and quality of intercropped maize |
|
View Fulltext View/Add Comment Download reader |
| |
| DOI：10.7606/j.issn.1000-7601.2026.01.15 |
| Key Words: intercropping maize planting density antioxidant enzymes activity yield quality intercropping advantages |
| Author Name | Affiliation | | FENG Zongpeng | State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China | | MA Lezheng | State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China | | LUO Zhuzhu | State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China | | DONG Bo | Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China | | ZHAO Xiaoqiang | State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China | | NIU Yining | State Key Laboratory of Aridland Crop Science, College of Agronomy, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730070, China |
|
| Hits: 735 |
| Download times: 116 |
| Abstract: |
| With maize monoculture treatment (MM) as a control, a maize\|soybean intercropping experiment was conducted in the rain\|fed agricultural area of the Longdong Loess Plateau from 2023 to 2024, and four intercropping maize planting densities of 52 500 (M1), 67 500 (M2), 75 000 (M3), and 82 500 plants·hm-2 (M4) were created in the field. The aim of the study was to explore the effects of different planting densities on maize growth, antioxidant enzyme activity, yield, and quality. The results showed that compared with monoculture, intercropping reduced the plant height (by 1.80% to 6.51%) and stem thickness (by 10.16% to 12.68%) of maize, and significantly increased LAI (by 15.59% to 26.10%). The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) in maize leaves were the highest during the silking stage of each treatment, while the POD enzyme activity in M3 treatment was not significantly different from that in MM treatment. The intercropping treatment increased the grain yield of M3 maize by 15.4% compared to monoculture, reaching 10 002.63 kg·hm-2. However, the number of rows per spike and the number of kernels per row decreased by 3.71% and 8.38%, respectively, compared to monoculture. Increasing planting density significantly increased the yield of crude protein, crude fat, starch, and crude ash in maize kernels, with the M3 treatment showing better performance, increasing by 18.17% to 21.24%, 22.94% to 29.97%, 17.50% to 28.63%, and 19.12% to 25.52% compared to other intercropping treatments, respectively. The PCA analysis of maize grain yield and quality showed that PC1 and PC2 jointly explained more than 98.5% of the variation in different treatments. The intercropping treatment M3 showed significant differences from other treatments in both years, with land equivalent ratios of 1.70 and 1.21, and interspecific competitiveness of 1.17 and 0.76, respectively, which were better than other intercropping treatments. Adopting a 4∶2 intercropping of maize and soybeans, selecting a planting density pattern of 75 000 plants·hm-2 can coordinate the growth and development relationship between maize individuals and populations, increase the crude fat yield and starch yield of maize kernels, and enhance the comprehensive production advantages of the maize\|soybean intercropping system. The results of this study can be popularized and applied in the Longdong Loess Plateau and similar ecological areas. |
|
|
|