PLANTING PATTERN OF MAIZE IN ROW SOWING A ND ITS EFFECTS OF YIELD COMPONENTS

The purpose of this work was to evaluate the influence of planting pat tern on grains yield and their components in two row spacings and to d etermine the effect in the increase on number of plants per hill upon other characteristics associated with the harvest. The experiment was established in Passo Fundo, physiographic region of the middle upland of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, during the year of 1991/92. The treatmen ts consisted of two row spacings (0,9 and 0,7 m) and five planting pat terns (1,2 and 3 plants per hill and two systems of ununiform distribu tion in plants) in a density of 65,000 plants/ha. The short-season cul tivar pioneer 3230 was sowed on November 12 th, 1991. The results show ed that grain yield and yield components do not change with the altera tion in planting pattern and row spacings even with the high yield obt ained of 8,929 kg/ha. These results showed that corn is able to compen sate spacings left by ununiformity of sowing, since the same plant pop ulation has been maintained. In a similar way, the number of ears in e ach plant, the height of insertion of ears and the percentage of lodge d and broken plants were not affected by the increase in number of pla nts per hill in both row spacings.