The study was carried out at Abo Jarash farm, Faculty of Agriculture,
Damascus University, during the growing season of 2012, where the maize
cultivar "Gouta 1" was grown in three agricultural spacings (20, 30 and 40 cm
between plants in the same
row), with a fixed space (70 cm) between rows,
according to the randomized complete block design and three replicates per
treatment, in order to study the effect of the studied agricultural spacing on the
following characters: plant height, length and weight of ear, number of kernel
rows per ear, number and weight of kernels per ear, net percentage, hundred
kernels weight, the kernel yield, the dry yield and the oil and protein contents
in the kernels. Results showed a significant decrease in plant height from
155.31 to 130.10 cm, while a significant increase was observed in number of
kernels per ear (from 310.05 to 373.82 kernels), in weight of kernels per ear
(from 41.20 to 65.17 g) and in net percentage (from 61.61 to 91.51 %),
respectively with the increase of agricultural spacing from 20 to 40 cm.
However, the increase in these characters didn’t substitute the small number of
plants in the vast spacing compared with the narrow spacing, which is reflected
in kernel yield per unit of area that amounted to 3.19 and 2.04 tons/ha,
respectively.
