Abstract:

The experiment was conducted to study the effect of growth indexes, yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of summer maize under three different soil moisture treatments (75%, 65%, 55% of field capacity) of straw mulching. The experiment was carried out in test-pit under rainshelter and designed two factors of straw mulching and soil moisture conditions, the changing patterns of growth index, yield and WUE of summer maize were analyzed. The results showed the leaf area index (LAI), yield and WUE under straw mulching were higher than that of no mulching. Compared to the high soil moisture (75% of field capacity), the yield of summer maize under the middle soil moisture treatment (65% of field capacity) was not significantly reduced, while it had the highest WUE in all treatments. In a conclusion, in order to achieve the purpose of water-saving and high yield, the lower limit of soil moisture was controlled at the 65% of field capacity, which was recommended for summer maize under straw mulching.