Response of corn (Zea mays L) yield to leaf pruning under the cob

Research Center for Animal Husbandry, National Research and Innovation Agency, North Sulawesi, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: audikarupan@gmail.com

Abstract

The corn plant is one of the most important food crops, in addition to wheat and rice. In addition to the main source of carbohydrates, it is also an alternative food corn is also grown as animal feed (forage and cob). One of the efforts that can be done to increase corn productivity, among others, by modifying plant growth such as pruning. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of pruning leaves under the cob to increase corn production. Using a complete random design (RAL) consisting of 4 treatments (without pruning; 2-Leaf pruning; 4-Leaf pruning and 6-leaf pruning, each treatment is repeated 5 times. The results showed that the pruning of the lower leaves of the cob had no significant effect on the production components. In the treatment of 6 leaves pruning gives the highest production of 119.374 g, pruning 2 leaves 104.082 g, pruning 4 leaves 95.02 g and without pruning obtained 84.5 g. From this study it can be concluded that pruning up to 6 leaves under the cob has no effect on corn production. Pruning leaves under the cob at 65 days after planting has the potential to be used as quality animal feed