Maize

Introduction

Botanical name - Zea mays L.

Family – Poaceae/ Graminae
Origin – Mexico
Chromosome no. – 2n = 20

Maize is third most important cereal crop next to rice and

wheat.
Maize is called “Queen of cereals”.
Ancestor of maize is Teosinte.
 Nutritional value

• Maize grain contains about 70% carbohydrate.

• 1.97% sugar, 10% protein and 4.8% fat, 4%oil2.3%crude

fibre.

• Maize is poor in Ca but rich in P and K like other cereals.

• Mg, Na and Cl are very less and Fe is sufficient. But lacks in

Triptofan and Lysine A.A.

• Protein found in maize in called-Zein.

Current maize utilization pattern
 Classification of maize

S.No. MAIZE (Spp) CHARACTER

1 Flint corn (Zea mays indurata) Kernel is hard and smooth, commonly cultivated in India.

2 Dent corn (Zea mays indentata) Kernel appears like tooth, so named dent Corn mainly grown in USA.

3 Pop corn (Zea mays everta) To prepare food products like, corn flakes, corn chips, pop corn etc.

4 Sweet corn (Zea mays saccharata) In this, a translucent sweet horny appearance before maturity.

5 Soft corn(Zea mays amylacea) Kernel almost entirely consist of softstarch is known as soft corn.

6 Pod corn(Zea mays tunicata) Husked, primitive type of corn.

7 Waxy corn (Zea mays cerabinakulesh) Commercially grown on a small scale.Produce starch to tapioca starch.
 Morphology of maize
ROOT SYSTEM
Root system is fibrous and deep, well developed. It consist of:
A. Seminal roots
B. Crown or coronal roots
C. Brace or aerial roots
STEM
The stem is made up of approximately 12-18 nodes and internodes and is
completely filled with pith .The number of internodes my vary button an average
there are 14 internode
A leaf is attached to every node, and often a bud or branch arises at a node.
Leaves
Develop alternately or opposite side of the stem .Each leaf consist of a thin, flat and
expanded blade with a midrib and smaller veins and thicker more rigid sheath.
Each sheath surrounds the internodes above the node to which it is attached
No of leaves varies from 12-20, stomata are present on both side of the leaves
Maize Plant Leaf and Stem
Permanent Ridge and Furrow Temporary Ridge and Furrow
 Inflorescence

• Normally a monoecious plant having two type of inflorescence.

• Female inflorescence develop into ear (cob)and the male is tassel.

• Flower borne on two different part of the plant.

• Male flowers borne in cluster(tassel) on top of end of stem. while

female borne aside of the plant inside young cobs.

• Female inflorescence develops1-3 days after male inflorescence.

Tasseling and Silking Stage
 Soil and climate requirement

• Maize can be grown in temperate high lands, tropical as well as sub-

tropical regions. A moderate temperature, adequate moisture are basic
need of Maize crop. However, the crop is susceptive to water logging
condition, which needs to be avoided.

• Maize requires a well drained sandy loam soil with organic matter. It
thrives well in soil pH between 5.5 to 8.0.
 SOWING TIME:

Season Optimum time of sowing

Kharif Last week of June to first fortnight July

Rabi Last week of October for inter cropping and up to15th of

November for sole crop

Spring First week of February

 LAND PREPARATION AND
MANURING
• A well prepared flat-beds which has given 4-5 deep
ploughing provided an ideal condition for sowing of crop.
• 1. FYM or compost: 5 ton/ha
• 2. N: 100-120 Kg /ha
• 3. P2O5: 60 Kg /ha
• 4. K2O/ 30-40 Kg /ha
Urea should be applied in 3 splits, mainly at sowing, knee-
high and tasseling stages. Entire dose of P & K with 40 Kg
urea should be applied at the time of sowing. Application of 25
Kg of ZnSO4 at sowing is also recommended since maize is
susceptible to Zn deficiency.
Tillage and crop establishment

Raised bed (ridge) planting:

Zero-till planting:
• Conventional till flat planting:
• Furrow planting:

• Transplanting:
 Seed treatment

Disease/insect-pest Fungicide/Pesticide Rate of application

(g kg-1 seed)

Turcicum Leaf Blight, Banded Leaf and Bavistin + Captan in 1:1 2.0
Sheath Blight, Maydis Leaf Blight ratio

BSMD Apran 35 SD 4.0

Pythium Stalk Rot Captan 2.5

Termite and shoot fly Imidachlorpit 4.0

Seed rate and plant geometry:

Seed
Plant geometry
Sr. No. Purpose rate Plant population
(plant x row, cm)
(kg /ha)
Grain (normal and  60 x 20 83333
1 20
QPM) 75 x 20 66666
75 x 25 53333
2 Sweet corn 8
75 x 30 44444
60 x 20 83333
3 Baby corn 25
60 x 15 111111

4 Pop corn 12 60 x 20 83333

75 x 20 66666
5 Green cob (normal maize) 20
60 x 20 83333

6 Fodder 50 30 x 10 333333
 METHOD OF PLANTING

• Seed treatment: Treated with Bavistan@ 3g/Kg of seeds

before sowing in the field.
• Depth of Sowing: 4-6 cm, where maize is generally sown on
flat beds.
• Spacing: 70cm x 25cm for row to row and plant to plant
• Plant density of 66,666/ha.
• A healthy seeds of 20-22Kg required for cultivation in one
hectare of land.
Sowing of Seeds
 INTERCULTURE OPERATION:

Thinning should be done after 10 days of germination keeping

one plant per hill. At knee high stage (about 35 days after
germination) the crop plants should be earthed-up followed by
light hand weeding. The second earthing up should be done at
60 days after germination of the crop; it may slightly vary in
respective to locality.
 IRRIGATION:

• For Kharif Maize, irrigation at early knee-high, tasselling

and 50% silking stages are to be given.

• For rabi Maize, first irrigation is to be applied 3-4 weak after

seedling emergence, subsequently at 4-5 weeks till March
and thereafter at 1-2 weeks interval.
 Variety:

• Hybrid variety – Ganga hybrid makka-5, Himalayan hybrid

Makka.

• The composite variety, Prabhat and Dhawal are specially

recommended for cultivation in North-eastern hill regions.

• The variety of QPM (HQPM-3) and Baby corn (HM-4) are

also found to be suitably grown in the district.
 PLANT PROTECTION:
1. Maize Stem Borer: The Larvae attack the crop from June to September, first they scrap
the leaves and then bore into the stem, thus resulting in dead heart of the central shoot.
Control: Application of Endosulfan 35EC @250 ml and Monocrotophos 36 WSC @275
ml/ha in 125 litres of water by starting spray 2-3 weeks after sowing. Application of
Neem based pesticides like Margosa @2 ml/ltrs of water are found to be benefecial.

2. Army worm and Silk cutter:These insects feed on the leaves in the Whorl. Control:
Spray Sevin (Carbaryl) 50 WP@ 250g in 125 ltrs of water.

3. Leaf Blight: Maydis leaf blight symptoms appear on leaves on the form of spindle
shaped neurotic to brown lesions. Such lesions may emerge to form large, irregular
patches. Control: spraying of Indofil M45 @ 500g in 250 ltr of water/ha. Give the spray
at 10 days interval.

4. Weed control: Pre-emergence application of Atrazine @ 1 Kg a.i/ha is recommended

for weed control.
Spray of Insectiside to control the population of Fall Armyworm
 Intercropping:

• Growing of one row of soybean in between 2 rows of maize

(60 cm spacing) gave increase in yield of maize.

• The planting of one row of Maize alternating every 4 rows of

Urdbean or black gram (30cm spacing) is found to be most
suitable, resulted in the highest productivity.
 Agro-climatic Cropping system
Maize based cropping region
Irrigated Rain
systems in India fed
Western Himalayan Maize-wheat Maize-
Region Maize-potato-wheat Maize-wheat- mustard
greengram Maize-mustard Maize-
Maize-sugarcane legumes

Eastern Himalayan Summer rice-maize-mustard Maize- Sesame-Rice+maize

Region maize
Maize-maize-legumes
Lower Gangetic Autumn rice-maize Rice-maize
Plain region Jute-rice-maize
Middle Gangetic Maize-early potato-wheat- Maize-wheat
Plain region mungbean
Maize-wheat
Maize-wheat-mungbean Maize-
wheat-urdbean Maize-sugarcane-
mungbean
Upper Gangetic Plain Maize-wheat Maize-wheat
region Maize-wheat-mungbean Maize- Maize-barley
potato-wheat Maize-potato- Maize-
sunflower Maize-potato-onion safflower
Maize-potato-sugarcane-ratoon Rice-
potato-maize

Trans Gangetic Plain Maize-wheat Maize-wheat

region Maize-wheat-mungbean Maize-
potato-wheat Maize-potato-
sunflower Maize-potato-onion
Mungbean-maize-toria-wheat Maize-
potato-mungbean

Eastern plateau & Maize-groundnut-vegetables Rice-potato-maize

hills region Maize-wheat-vegetables Jute-maize-cowpea
Central plateau & Maize-wheat Maize-groundnut
hills region

Table 1. Maize based sequential cropping systems in different ago-climatic zones of India
Table 2 Maize based intercropping systems

Intercropping systems Suitable area/situation

Maize + Pigeon pea Maize + All maize growing areas
Cowpea Maize + Mungbean
Maize + Urdbean Maize +
Sugarcane Rice + Maize Maize
+ Soybean

Maize + high value vegetables Maize Peri-urban interface

+ flowers
Baby corn + vegetables Sweet corn
+ vegetables
HARVESTING AND THRESING:

• Maize is ready for harvesting even when the stacks and

leaves are somewhat green but the husk cover has dried and
turned brown.
• Shell Maize when the moisture content ranges between 15-
20%. Conventional harvester combines can be used for
threshing Maize with husk to save labour involved in
dehusking.
• The Maize ears should preferably be dried for 3-4 days after
harvesting to improve grain recoveries and reduce breakage
losses during shelling.
Ready to Harvest
 Yield

Irrigated crop:- 5-6 t/ha of grain in case of hybrid sand

4.5-5.0 tons in case of composites.

Rainfed crop:-2.0-2.5 t/ha for hybrids 1.5-2.0 t/ha for

composites.
 Quality protein maize

• It is characterized by presence of balance amount of A. A with high

content of Triptofan (5%) and Lysine(3.5%) and low amount of
leucine and isoleucine.
• Varities for QPM-1-9, Rattan, protina and Shaktiman.
Baby corn- It is a young finger like un fertilized cob with 1-3 cm
immersed silk.
The desirable length of baby corn is 6-11 cm.it is a good source of
fibrous protein and easy to digest.
Sowing can be done at any time from April to may.Var-HM-4, Golden
Baby, VL-42 etc.
Pop corn - Pop means kernel relatively small &oval and sometimes
oval in shape when heated about170°C grains turning inside out. var-
Amber, VL amber etc. fodder maize-var-African tall, J1006
Maize and climate change

• water scarcity areas in peninsular India (Andhra Pradesh and

Tamil Nadu) affecting yield of Rabi rice, maize being a
photo-insensitive crop has better options for adaptation and
mitigation of these climatic changes.