Abstract:
Maize is the major food crop in western Ethiopia and is produced in a number of agro- ecologies. However, its productivity is constrained by erratic and low amount of rain fall and little availability of high yielding variety applications. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted during the 2019 main cropping season in Haramaya University of eastern Ethiopia on rare research field. The objectives of the study were to determine the effect of different tied ridge planting methods and variety on yield components and yield of maize and identify the optimum combination of variety and tied ridge method that improve the productivity of maize in the area. The treatments consisted of factorial combinations of three levels of variety (melkasa-2, BHQPY-545 and Bate) and five level of planting method (T1=closed end tied ridge in furrow planting; T2 =closed end tied ridge on ridge planting; T3 =open end tied ridge in furrow planting; T4 =open end tied ridge on ridge planting; and T5 =flatbed or farmer practice planting). To set the treatments, randomized complete block design with three replications was used to lay out the experiment.. The result revealed that days to tasseling, days to silking, days to physiological maturity, leaf area, leaf area index, ear length and thousand kernels weight were significantly affected by the main effects of different tied ridge planting method and variety. The highest number of days to tasseling (78.67), days to silking (83.56) days to physiological maturity (138.4) leaf area (10011cm²) leaf area index (4.45), ear length (26.67cm) and thousand kernel weight (339.7g)were recorded at close end tied ridge in furrow planting method. Similarly, the highest days to tasseling (87.13), days to silking (91.87), days to maturity (148.5) leaf area (11509cm²), leaf area index (5.115) and ear length (26.2cm) were obtained from plot of BHQPY-545 variety. Whereas: the highest thousand kernels weight (348.6g) was obtained from plot of melkasa-2 variety. The result also showed that number of ear per plant, harvest index and plant stand count at harvest were only significantly affected by main effect of different tied ridge planting methods. The highest plant stand count at harvest (98.22%), number of ear per plant (1.818) and harvest index (37.12%) were recorded at close end tied ridge in furrow planting method. The interaction of different tied ridge planting method and variety had significant effect on plant height, ear height, and number of kernels per ear, grain yield and aboveground dry biomass yield. The tallest plant height (2.478m) and maximum biomass yield (23801kg ha-1) were obtained under closed end tied ridge in furrow planting with BHQPY-545 variety. Whereas the longest ear height (1.283m) were obtained under closed end tied ridge in furrow planting with BHQPY-545. The result also showed that, highest number of kernel per ear (550.7) and grain yield (8990 kg ha-1) were obtained under closed end tied ridge in furrow planting with BHQPY-545 variety. Based on the result of the study closed end tied ridge in furrow planting method with BHQPY-545 Variety could be used to increase the productivity of maize in the study area. However, since this study was carried out only in one location for one cropping season it should be conducted on more location for many years to reach at a conclusive recommendation