Agronomic performance of corn under different arrangements population and row spacing

Currently, Brazil is the third largest producer of corn, behind the United States and China, however has many areas of low productivity. Techniques such as reducing the rows spacing of plants, allowing a better arrangement of plants in the field, along with increasing seeding rate, can be employed to increase the interception of solar radiation, thus aiming at the increase of grain yield for corn. The objective of this study was to evaluate some agronomic characteristics and productivity of hybrid maize DKB 390 YG((R)) under different arrangements of plants (five populations with 40, 55, 70, 85 and 100 thousand plants ha(1)) and two spacings (0,45 and 0,90 m lines) during the off-season. The experimental design was randomized blocks in a 2x5 factorial arrangement with four replications. The reduction rows spacing of plants resulted in increased the plant height, in insertion height of ear, the number of grains per row, number of grains per ear, the weight of hundred grains and productivity. The population increase resulted in lower plant height and increased productivity of grains.