Uneven seedling emergence affects growth and yield in corn
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5433/1679-0359.2026v47n1p131Keywords:
Delayed emergence, Dominated plants, Intraspecific competition.Abstract
The timing of planting is important, as it defines the productive potential of a crop. Among planting-related factors, delayed emergence has received less attention compared with stand loss and seed spatial distribution. Some studies suggest that temporal unevenness in emergence may be more detrimental than spatial unevenness. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the effect of delayed emergence on delayed and adjacent plants. Two experiments, arranged in randomized blocks, were conducted in a commercial area in 2018 and 2019, with one third of the plants (33%) sown with delays of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 days. Delayed and adjacent plants were evaluated separately. In both years, delayed plants showed etiolation, characterized by increased ear insertion height and reduced stem diameter. Adjacent plants exhibited an increase in stem diameter but no change in ear insertion height. Delayed plants demonstrated a linear reduction in all yield components in both years, resulting in a 6.6% (2018) and 8.1% (2019) reduction in yield for each day of delayed emergence. Adjacent plants showed a compensatory response only in 2019, with a linear increase of 1.7% in yield for each day of delayed emergence. In both years, tolerance of up to two days of delayed emergence was observed; beyond this point, the reduction in average yield becomes linear, ranging from 1.6% to 2.1% for each additional day of delay.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Laerte Gustavo Pivetta, Camila de Aquino Tomaz, Laércio Augusto Pivetta, Rafael Caciolatto, Renata Vacaro Moura Alves, Dácio Olibone, Ana Paula Encide-Olibone, Gabriel Missio de Moura
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Instituto Federal de Mato Grosso
Grant numbers 6000
