Effect of inter and intra row spacing on growth, yield And yield component of quality protein maize (zea mays L.) (bhqpy 545) at jimma, southwest Ethiopia

Quality Protein Maize (BHQPY545) has been released by research center to tackle the low level protein content of other commercial maize varieties in Ethiopia. However, little has been done on the influence of different Inter and Intra row spacing on BHQPY 545 variety growth and yield under Jimma Condition. Therefore, this field experiment was conducted at Jimma Agricultural Research Center with the objective of to determine the effect of Inter and Intra row spacing on growth, yield and yield component of BHQPY 545. Factorial combinations of five Inter row spacing (55, 65, 75, 85 and 95 cm) and five Intra row spacing (20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 cm) were laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Analysis of variance showed that the interaction effect of inter and intra row spacings brought about significant variation among all the traits measured except Days to 50% emergence, ear length, number of grain rows per ear and number of grains per row while the main effect brought significant variation on number of ear per plant and ear diameter. Moreover, significantly higher leaf area index, plant height, number of grain per ear, grain yield and biomass yield was recorded from 55x25cm inter and intra row spacing. Grain yield highly significant and positively correlated with leaf area index (r=0.57**), plant height (r=0.37**), number of grain per ear (r=0.33**) and biomass yield (r=0.81**). On the other hand, grain yield was highly significantly and negatively correlated with leaf area (r=-0.53**), stem diameter (r=-0.54**) and number of ear per plant (r=-0.39**). In general, significantly higher yields were obtained from treatment combination of 55x25cm while the lowest was recorded from 75x40cm inter and intra row spacing. Therefore, it could be concluded that BHQPY 545 maize could be planted at optimum spacing of 55cm x 25cm of Inter and Intra row spacing under irrigation in Jimma area to attain maximum yield. It is further recommended that these results are from only one season at one site and hence such studies may be repeated in space and time to reach at concrete recommendation.