Effect of plant density on maize cultivation

Maize is an important crop for the state of Santa Catarina due to the area planted and the production of grains and silage. Among the maize cultivars used in the state, open-pollinated varieties are of great importance to small farmers. The work was carried out at Epagri's Campos Novos experimental station during the 2005/06 harvest. The results showed that plant density had a significant effect on the number of days until male and female flowering, the interval of days between female flowering and physiological maturity, stalk diameter, number of expanded leaves, individual leaf area, total leaf area per plant, green leaf area per plant, relative senescent leaf area per plant, leaf area index, total phytomass, grain yield, number of grains m-², number of grains ear-¹, number of ears m-², number of ears plant-¹, weight of 1000 grains, phytomass of spontaneous plants and lodging and plant breakage. The optimum density for producing grains and phytomass for silage was approximately 57,000 plants ha-¹.