Late harvest improves yield and nitrogen utilization efficiency of summer maize

Abstract The farmers are accustomed to harvesting summer maize around September 20, but the maize has not yet reached physiological maturity in the Huang-Huai-Hai region, which is adverse for grain yield and mechanized harvest. In order to explore the effect of harvest date on grain yield and nitrogen utilization of summer maize, two treatment in 2016 (CK and 10d) and four treatments in 2017 (CK, 3d, 6d, 10d) were conducted. The sowing dates of all treatments were June 13, and the harvest dates of CK, 3d, 6d and 10d were September 20, 23, 26 and 30, respectively. We found that grain yield and thousand-kernel weight of 10d significantly increased by 17.4–19.8% and 16.8–19.6%, respectively, compared to CK. And partial factor productivity of nitrogen of 10d was 17.4–19.7% higher than that of CK. The grain nitrogen concentration of 3d, 6d and 10d increased by 5.4%, 9.0%, and 9.3–10.8% compared to CK, which promoted nitrogen harvest index, physiological nitrogen use efficiency and partial factor productivity of nitrogen. The reason why nitrogen utilization efficiency increased was that late harvest promoted nitrogen accumulation after tasseling and nitrogen translocation to grain. The nitrogen translocation of 6d was 10.0% in 2017 higher, and that of 10d was 25.1% in 2016 and 15.3% in 2017 higher, respectively, compared to CK. The nitrogen accumulation of 10d increased by 39.0% in 2016, and that of 3d, 6d and 10d increased by 46.5%, 51.3% and 57.3% in 2017, compared to CK. In conclusion, the thousand-kernel weight increased with the delay of harvest date, resulting in increases in grain yield of summer maize. The late harvest promoted nitrogen utilization efficiency resulting from higher nitrogen accumulation after tasseling and higher nitrogen translocation to grain. The contribution of nitrogen translocation to grain yield appeared in the mid-late period (September 23–30), while the contribution of nitrogen accumulation after tasseling did in the early and middle period (September 20–26). Considering annual production of winter wheat-summer maize, the optimized harvest date for summer maize is 6–10 days later than the conventional pattern in this study, that is the cumulative growing degree-days after tasseling reach 613.2–711.5 °C at least.