Impact of different crop geometry in maize on fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda infestation Nivetha T.K., Srinivasan G.*, Shanthi M., Gurusamy A.1, Vellaikumar S. Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Madurai-625 104, India 1Dryland Agricultural Research Station, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Chettinad-630 102, India *E-mail: srinivasan.govindaraj@yahoo.com
Online Published on 19 September, 2022. Abstract A field study was designed to investigate the impact of crop spacing and hybrids on the incidence of Fall armyworm in maize CoH(M)-6 and NK-6240 during Rabi season (2019) and the observations were made at fortnight intervals. The results revealed that NK-6240 hybrid maize sown at conventional sowing (dibbling method) showed maximum larval population ranged from 1.71 to 3.05 larvae/plant, infestation ranged from 56.73 to 74.21% and leaf damage score was 6.6. The lowest larval population was observed on CoH(M)-6 maize plots sown at 60x25cm spacing, which ranged from 0.52 to 1.09 larvae/plant and per cent infestation was ranging from 23.14 to 53.32% and the mean damage score was significantly low (3.5) and resulted in significantly higher yield. However, in NK-6240 the grain yield was higher at 60x25cm spacing (10525 kg/ha) as compared to conventional sowing (6196 kg/ha). The different crop spacing had an impact on the fall armyworm incidence, leaf damage, plant infestation and yield loss. The hybrid CoH(M)-6 at 60x25cm spacing recorded minimum larval population, infestation and leaf damage score and yield loss. Top Keywords Maize, Fall armyworm, Rabi, Spacing, Larval population, Per cent infestation, Leaf damage, Yield. Top |