Irrigation and Water Engineering

Irrigation and Water Engineering

The effect of Partial root zone drying and different levels of biochar on ear maize growth

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Assistant Professor Payam Noor University of Tehran Province
10.22125/iwe.2026.564019.1914
Abstract
The main purpose of irrigation is to compensate for the lack of usable water for the plant and the purpose of deficit irrigation is to save water consumption. Partial root zone drying is one of the low irrigation methods. One of the soil additives to improve its fertility is biochar. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of different partial root zone drying treatments at full irrigation, two levels of 65 and 55% and different levels of biochar consumption (zero, 6 and 12 tons per hectare) on the growth characteristics on height, diameter and wood diameter was calculated. The highest height was achieved in the 12-ton application treatment in the biochar soil in the second year, at 17.2 centimeters. This showed a 13% increase compared to the treatment without biochar in the first year, which had the lowest ear height. The treatment using 6 tons per hectare of biochar in the second year had the highest ear diameter of 2.4 cm. The highest ear diameter was observed in the treatment of 12 tons per hectare of biochar and full irrigation, at 4.45 cm. Which was significantly different from the treatment without biochar. Therefore, the effect of year on ear height and ear stalk diameter was highly significant. The interaction effect of planting year and irrigation had a highly significant effect on ear height.

The effect of biochar on ear height and ear diameter was also significant. The effect of irrigation treatments on ear diameter was highly significant.
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