Optimum plant density for crowding stress tolerant processing sweet corn

Area of Science:

• Agronomy
• Plant Breeding
• Agricultural Economics

Background:

• Sweet corn yield gains lag behind field corn, partly due to lower plant densities.
• Crowding stress tolerant (CST) sweet corn hybrids offer potential for increased productivity but are under-utilized.
• Optimizing plant density is crucial for maximizing crop output and economic returns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine optimal plant densities for CST processing sweet corn hybrids across diverse growing conditions.
• To quantify the production gap between current and optimal planting densities.
• To assess changes in yield and ear traits resulting from increased plant densities.

Main Methods:

• Conducted on-farm trials with a CST shrunken-2 (sh2) processing sweet corn hybrid across Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin (2013-2017).
• Utilized linear mixed-effects models to identify optimum plant densities for maximum ear mass, case production, and processor profitability.
• Analyzed the impact of varying plant densities on kernel moisture and key ear traits.

Main Results:

• Kernel moisture remained unaffected by plant density.
• Ear number, ear mass per plant, average ear length, and filled ear length decreased with higher plant densities.
• Increasing plant density from 58,475 to 73,075 plants ha-1 improved green ear yield by 1.13 Mt ha-1 and processor profitability by $525 ha-1 on average.

Conclusions:

• Higher plant densities of CST sweet corn hybrids are economically beneficial for growers and processors.
• Optimizing plant density for CST hybrids can significantly enhance processing sweet corn production.
• Current sweet corn cultivation practices may not fully leverage the potential of CST hybrids.