Effect of maize succession with winter crops on growth and productivity of maize

The study was conducted to investigate the effects of winter crops succession on maize growth and productivity, at Salahaddin University, Erbil, Iraq, during fall and a winter season of 2016–2017. During both fall seasons, the field was completely planted with maize, afterwards, at winter season, three crops were selected namely canola, chickpea and wheat as well as a fallow plot in factorial randomized complete block design. The studied vegetative characters were plant height, ear height and stem diameter, while the productive characters were ear diameter, grain yield, 300-kernels weight of ear's base and biological weight. The highest plant height was after fallow and ear height and stem diameter after chickpea with 232.96, 90.87 and 2.46 cm respectively. The ear diameter and grain yield were maximum (2.69 cm, 13.46 t/ha) after chickpea. The 300-kernels weight of ear's base and biological weight were maximum in fallow after canola (93.88 and 491.43 g). The physiological characters, leaf area and leaf area index demonstrated the highest values after canola (6342.41 cm² and 3.38 respectively).