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MAIZE BIOMASS YIELD AT DIFFERENT PRECEDING CROPS, ROW SPACING AND NITROGEN CONDITIONS

Prof. Dr. Viorel Ion, Lecturer Dr. Adrian Gheorghe Basa, Prof. Dr. Georgeta Temocico, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lenuta Iuliana Epure

Abstract

Nowadays the renewable sources of energy are gaining more and more in importance to meet the society requirements of energy in a sustainable way. Biomass is among the renewable sources of energy which is known and used since ancient times and it is of great importance for present as well as for the future. One source of biomass are agricultural crops through their residues but also as agricultural crops specially designed to produce biomass and known as energy crops. Although the biomass was traditionally used to produce heat by burning it, in the present this is of great importance as source of solid, liquid and gas fuels. Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most used crop for producing biomass to be used as substrate for biogas production which is converted through combustion process into power energy and heat. The maize crop can be used in this respect either as an energy crop, which is specially designed for biomass production, or as crop residues of the maize crops designed for grains production. Maize as an energy crop for producing green biomass to be transform through fermentation process into biogas has some advantages among which there is counted the capacity to provide high yields of biomass respectively high yields of methane, and it is an energy crop relatively easy to be cultivated. But maize as an energy crop requires an appropriate crop technology according with the purpose to produce biomass. Among the specific elements of the crop technology there are counted the preceding crop, row spacing and nitrogen fertilization, which represent elements that the maize grower can manipulate according to his production objective. The aim of this paper is to present the dry biomass yields at maize under the influence of different crop technology elements, respectively at different preceding crops, row spacing and nitrogen conditions. In this respect, a field experiment was performed in South Romania under the climatic conditions of the year 2016, with five maize hybrids sown under the conditions of two preceding crops (sunflower and maize), two row spacing (70 cm and 50 cm) and four nitrogen conditions (0 kg.ha-1, 50 kg.ha-1, 100 kg.ha-1 and 50+50 kg.ha-1 of nitrogen as active substance). The biomass determinations were performed in the early dough пїЅ dough plant growth stage, and the biomass yield (tons.ha-1) was calculated for each experimental variant.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017/42/s17.050

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