[Effects of shade-humid environment on the growth characteristics of different maize (Zea mays) hybrids]

The growth traits of 18 maize hybrids were studied in natural and artificial simulation shade-humid environments. Significant differences were observed between the natural and shade-humid environments, and the air relative humidity in the shade-humid environment increased 15.0%-16.4%, the soil moisture increased 27.0%-78.4%, the illumination intensity decreased 72.9%-77.9%, and the quantum decreased 72.8%-79.6%. Shade did not affect the ambient temperature. The 7th leaf width, effective functional leaves, plant total leaves, tassel branch number, stem diameter, plant height, ear height, ear length, ear diameter, rows per ear, kernels per row, 100-grain mass and grain yield per plant under the shade-humid environment showed negative variations (reduction in phenotypic values), with the grain yield per plant and plant height being reduced by 72.3% and 7.1% respectively, and the declining changes of the remaining traits ranging from 14.8%-53.8%. However, the 7th leaf length, 7th leaf length-width ratio, anthesis to silking (ASI) duration, southern leaf blight (SLB) index and sheath blight index showed positive variations (increase in phenotypic values), with increases by 39.8%, 80.5%, 114.3%, 73.0% and 54.8%, respectively. The comprehensive shade-humid-tolerant coefficient calculated from the seven traits of ASI, tassel branches, plant total leaves, plant height, individual grain yield, southern leaf blight and sheath blight index could be easily and reliably used to evaluate the shade-humid-tolerant ability of the maize hybrids. According to this coefficient, the 18 hybrids could be classified into three categories, strongly-resistant, moderately-resistant and weakly-resistant to the shade-humid environment.