Corn Hybrid Response to Skip-Row Planting Configurations in North Dakota.

There is limited information on how to manage corn (Zea mays) in drought prone regions of western North Dakota where moisture stress during fertilization and grain filling frequently occurs.  Analysis of weather data suggests eight of the last ten years had significant water stress during this period.  Since most of the rainfall in western North Dakota is in early summer, the soil reserves may be completely utilized by anthesis which can result in low yields or crop failure.  Research has shown that skip-row planting configurations can improve yields in drought environments.  When rows are skipped there should be an extra pool of soil water in the inter-row area which the corn plants could extract when needed during anthesis.  Furthermore, since the skip row configuration dramatically alters available sunlight and plant to plant spacing, hybrid performance may interact with row configuration.  The objective of this research was to identify hybrids and hybrid characteristics that are better adapted to skip-row planting configurations.  Five field trials were conducted in 2009 and 2010 in western North Dakota.  Six hybrids with two populations were used within three planting configurations:  plant every row, plant two - skip one row, and plant one - skip one row.  In 2009 very little drought occurred due to an abnormally wet growing season.  Since there was no drought, the yields were favored by planting more rows.  Planting all rows yielded 7.9 Mg ha^-1, plant two – skip one yielded 6.6 Mg ha^-1, and plant one – skip one yielded 6.0 Mg ha^-1.  Hybrids differed significantly with later maturing hybrids yielding more than shorter maturing hybrids.  In one location there was a hybrid x spacing interaction indicating that hybrid selection may be important for optimizing yield when using a skip-row configuration.