Effect of plant density and hand weeding on weed control and yield of the vegetable corn

 followed by the 
density of 111,111 plants ha-1 combined with one 
and two hand weeding treatments, whereas the 
minimum number of cobs was noted in the 
lowest plant density combined with no weeding 
treatment. There was no significant difference in 
the cob weight among treatments, but there was 
a significant difference in the number of cobs, 
which led to the significant effect of all examined 
treatments on cob yield (P≤ 0.05). The cob yield 
was the lowest at the density of 79,365 plants ha-
1 combined with no weeding treatment (1.35 tons 
ha-1) and the highest at the density of 111,111 
plants ha-1 combined with hand weeding twice 
(2.23 tons ha-1) treatments. However, there was 
no significant difference in cob yield among the 
density of 111,111 and 138,889 plants ha-1 
combined with hand weeding once and twice 
(D3HW1, D4HW1, D3HW2, and D4HW2, 
respectively). The results suggested that, to 
decrease the labour in manual weeding, the 
vegetable corn should be planted at the density of 
111,111 plant ha-1 combined with hand weeding 
once, which led to an increase in the cob yield 
due to the suppression of the growth of weeds. 
Tran Thi Thiem et al. (2020) 
https://vjas.vnua.edu.vn/ 793 
Note: Columns with the same letter within each treatment are not significantly different at P>0.05. 
D1, D2, D3, and D4: planting density at 79,365; 92,593; 111,111; and 138,889 plants ha-1, respectively. 
HW, HW1, and HW2: no weeding, hand weeding once, and hand weeding twice, respectively. 
Figure 3. Effects of plant density (a) and hand weeding (b) on the leaf area index of vegetable corn 
Green biomass 
Table 4a presents the effects of plant density 
and hand weeding on the green biomass of 
vegetable corn. The results showed that green 
biomass differed significantly (P≤ 0.05) among 
the plant density treatments as well as hand 
weeding treatments. The higher plant densities 
had higher green biomass compared to the lowest 
plant density. Similar results were observed in 
the studies of Nguyen et al. (2009) who 
indicated that increasing plant density 
significantly increased green fodder yield for all 
of the hybrid vegetable corns examined. In terms 
of hand weeding treatment, there was a 
significant difference in green biomass between 
weedy check and hand weeding. Hand weeding 
once and twice significantly increased green 
biomass compared to the weedy check. However, 
there was no significant difference in green 
biomass between hand weeding once and twice. 
The result of ANOVA analysis showed
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
7-9 leaf stage Tasseling stage Harvest stage
Le
af
 a
re
a 
in
d
e
x 
(m
-2
le
af
 m
-2
gr
o
u
n
d
)
HW
HW1
HW2
a aa
b
b
a a
c
b
(a)
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
7-9 leaf stage Tasseling stage Harvest stage
Le
af
 a
re
a 
in
d
e
x 
(m
-2
le
af
 m
-2
gr
o
u
n
d
)
D1
D2
D3
D4b
c
c
a
c
a
b
a
d
b
a
d
b
(b)
Effects of plant density and hand weeding on weed control and yield of the vegetable corn 
794 Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences 
Note: Columns with the same letter within each treatment are not significantly different at P>0.05. 
D1, D2, D3, and D4: planting density at 79,365; 92,593; 111,111; and 138,889 plants ha-1, respectively. 
HW, HW1, and HW2: no weeding, hand weeding once, and hand weeding twice, respectively. 
Figure 4. Effects of plant density (a) and hand weeding (b) on the dry matter weight of vegetable corn 
significant two-way interactions between plant 
density and hand weeding on green biomass 
(Table 4b). The maximum green biomass was 
observed in the plots with the density of 138,889 
plants ha-1 combined with one and two hand 
weeding treatments (32.22 and 32.36 tons ha -1, 
respectively), whereas the minimum green 
biomass was noted in the lowest plant density 
combined with no weeding treatment (18.78 
tons ha-1). 
Conclusions 
The results showed that increasing the plant 
density combined with hand weeding once and 
twice suppressed the growth of weed, which then 
led to an increase in the yield of vegetable corn. 
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
7-9 leaf stage Tasseling stage Harvest stage
D
ry
 m
at
te
r 
w
e
ig
h
t 
(g
 m
-2
gr
o
u
n
d
)
HW
HW1
HW2
a aa
a
bb
a
c
b
(a)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
7-9 leaf stage Tasseling stage Harvest stage
D
ry
 m
at
te
r 
w
e
ig
h
t 
(g
 m
-2
gr
o
u
n
d
)
D1
D2
D3
D4
a aaa
a
d
c
b
a
d
c
b
(b)
Tran Thi Thiem et al. (2020) 
https://vjas.vnua.edu.vn/ 795 
 Table 4a. Effects of plant density and hand weeding on yield components, cob yield, and green biomass of vegetable corn 
Treatment 
Number of cobs 
(1000 cobs ha-1) 
Cob weight 
(g plant-1) 
Cob yield 
(tons ha-1) 
Green biomass (tons 
ha-1) 
Hand weeding 
NW 270.19a 10.0a 1.53a 23.92a 
HW1 320.86b 10.2a 1.83b 25.94ab 
HW2 320.39b 10.2a 1.99b 26.42b 
LSD 0.05 41.9 1.5 0.18 2.45 
P 0.043 0.132 0.043 0.034 
Density 
D1 225.39a 9.7a 1.48a 19.67a 
D2 277.16b 9.7a 1.72b 23.07b 
D3 336.29c 10.3a 1.95c 26.98c 
D4 376.39c 10.8a 1.99c 31.98d 
LSD0.05 43.5 2.2 0.21 2.79 
P 0.031 0.092 0.041 0.023 
 Note: Values followed by the same letter in each treatment column are not significantly different at P> 0.05. 
 Table 4b. Interacting effects of plant density and hand weeding on yield components, cob yield, and green biomass of vegetable corn 
Treatment Number of cobs 
(1000 cobs ha-1) 
Cob weight 
(g plant-1) 
Cob yield 
(tons ha-1) 
Green biomass (tons 
ha-1) 
Hand weeding Density 
 NW 
D1 196.03a 9.5a 1.35a 18.78a 
D2 255.56bc 9.8a 1.47ab 22.96bc 
D3 294.44cd 9.8a 1.61bc 25.67de 
D4 334.72de 9.4a 1.69bc 29.28fg 
HW1 
D1 244.44b 9.8a 1.47ab 19.78ab 
D2 281.48bc 10.1a 1.71c 22.97cd 
D3 358.89ef 10.7a 2.01de 27.66ef 
D4 398.61f 10.2a 2.12de 33.36g 
HW2 
D1 235.71ab 10.2a 1.61bc 20.46ab 
D2 294.45cd 11.2a 1.99d 24.27cd 
D3 355.56ef 10.9a 2.23e 27.63ef 
D4 395.83f 10.2a 2.15de 33.22g 
 LSD0.05 46.5 2.7 0.23 3.04 
P 0.042 0.15 0.037 0.023 
Note: Values followed by the same letter in each treatment column are not significantly different at P> 0.05; 
 D1, D2, D3, and D4: planting density at 79,365; 92,593; 111,111; and 138,889 plants ha-1, respectively. 
 HW, HW1, and HW2: no weeding, hand weeding once, and hand weeding twice , respectively.
The lower weed density and weed dry weight s 
were found at the higher plant density combined 
hand weeding twice treatment. Similarly, higher 
plant density combined with hand weeding 
resulted in higher cob yield compared to the 
lowest plant density combined with no weeding 
treatment. However, there was no significant 
difference in cob yield among the densities of 
111,111 and 138,889 plants ha-1 combined with 
hand weeding once and twice. Therefore, the 
results suggested that under the lack of manual 
weeding labour condition, vegetable corn should 
be planted at the high density of 111,111 plants 
ha-1 combined with hand weeding once at 3-4 
Effects of plant density and hand weeding on weed control and yield of the vegetable corn 
796 Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences 
leaves, which suppressed the growth of weed and 
obtained the high cob yield (2.01 tons ha-1). 
References 
Abouziena H. F., El-Karmany M. F., Sigh M. & Sharma S. 
D. (2007). Effect of nitrogen and weed control 
treatment on maize yield and associated weeds in 
sandy soil. Weed Technology. 21: 1049-1053. 
Ahmed S., Salim M. & Chauhan B. S. (2014). Effect of 
Weed Management and Seed Rate on Crop Growth 
under Direct Dry Seeded Rice Systems in Bangladesh. 
Plos One. 9(7): 1-10. 
Al-Samarai G. F., Mahdi W. M. & Al-Hilali B. M. (2018). 
Reducing environmental pollution by chemical 
herbicides using natural plant derivatieves – 
allelopathy effect. Annals of Agricultural and 
Environmental Medicine. 25(3): 449-452. 
Bibi Z., Khan N., Akram M., Khan Q., Khan M. J., Batool 
S. & Makhdum K. (2010). Integrating cultivars with 
reduced herbicides rates for weed management in 
maize. Pakistan Journal of Botany. 42(3): 1923-1929. 
Dalley C. D., Bernards M. L. & Kells J. J. (2006). Effect of 
weed removal timing and row spacing on soil moisture 
in corn (Zea mays). Weed Technology. 20(2): 399-409. 
Deshpande R. M., Pawar W. S., Mankar P. S., Bobde P. N. 
& Chimote A. N. (2006). Integrated weed management 
in rainfed cotton. Indian Journal of Agronomy. 51(1): 
22-27. 
Dutta D., Thentu T. L. & Duttamudi D. (2016). Effect of 
weed- management practices on weed flora, soil 
micro-flora and yield of baby corn (Zea mays). Indian 
Journal of Agronomy. 61(2): 210-216. 
El-Sobky E. E. A. & El-Naggar N. Z. A. (2016). Effect of 
weed control treatment and planting density in Maize 
(Zea mays L.). Egyptian Journal of Agronomy. 38(1): 
55-77. 
Eskandarnejad S., Khorasani S. S., Bakhtiari S. & 
Heidarian A. R. (2013). Effect of row spacing and 
plant density on yield and yield components of Sweet 
corn (Zea may L. Saccharata) varieties. Advanced 
Crop Science. 3(1): 81-88. 
Fakir M. S. A. & Islam M. A. (2008). Effect of planting 
density on morphological features and yield in “baby” 
corn. Journal of Agroforestry and Environment. 2(2): 
9-13. 
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (2020). 
FAOSTAT on crop production. Retrieved from 
 on December 
12, 2019. 
Gnanasoundari P. (2013). Weed management in organic 
rice production. M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis. Tamil Nadu 
Agricultural University, Coimbatore. 
Ghosh M., Maity S. K., Gupta S. K. & Chowdhury A. R. 
(2017). Performance of baby corn under different plant 
densities and fertility levels in lateritic soils of eastern 
India. International Journal of Pure and Applied 
Bioscience. 5(3): 696-702. 
Han K., Liu B., Liu P. & Wang Z. (2020). The optimal plant 
density of maize for dairy cow forage production. 
Agronomy. 2020: 1-13. DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20004. 
Jia Q., Sun L. Mou H., Ali S., Liu D., Zhang Y., Zhang P., 
Ren X. & Jia Z. (2018). Effects of planting patterns and 
sowing densities on grain-filling, radiation use 
efficiency and yield of maize (Zea mays L.) in semi-
arid regions. Agricultural Water Management. 201: 
287-298. 
Khan N., Khan Z. & Khan A. (2017). Effect of maize 
planting densities on various growth parameters of 
barnyard grass. International Journal of Biology and 
Biotechnology. 14(1): 123-128. 
Khan M. A., Ali K., Hussain Z. & Afridi R. A. (2012). 
Impact of maize-legume Intercropping on weeds and 
maize crop. Pakistan Journal of Weed Science 
Research. 18(1): 127-136. 
Khanh T. D., Trung K. H., Anh L. H. & Xuan T. D. (2018). 
Allelopathy of barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli) 
weed: an allelopathic interaction with rice (Oryza 
sativa). Vietnam Journal of Agricultural Sciences. 
1(1): 97-116. 
Kotru R., Singh L., Singh P., Quayoom S., Sing K. N. & 
Ahmad L. (2012). Growth and yield of baby corn (Zea 
mays L.) as influenced by sowing dates and weed 
management practices under temperate condition. 
Haryana Journal of Agronomy. 28(1&2):11-18. 
Kumar B., Prasad S., Mandal D. & Kumar R. (2017). 
Influence of integrated weed management practices on 
weed dynamics, productivity and nutrient uptake of 
Rabi maize (Zea mays L.). International Journal of 
Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences. 6(4): 
1431-1440. 
Kumawat N., Yadav R. K., Bangar K. S., Tiwari S. C., 
Morya J. & Kumar R. (2019). Studies on intergrated 
weed management practices in maize - A review. 
Agricultural Reviews. 40(1): 29-36. 
Lykhovyd P. V., Ushkarenko V. O., Lavrenko S. O., 
Lavrenko N. M., Zhuikov O. H., Mrynskyi I. M. & 
Didenko N. O. (2019). Leaf area index of sweet corn 
(Zea mays ssp. Saccharat L.) crops depending on 
cultivation technology in the drip – irrigated conditions 
of the south of Ukraine. Modern Phytomorphology. 
13(1-4): 1-5. 
Madavi B., Leela Rani P., Sreenivas G. & Surekha K. 
(2017). Effect of High Density Planting and Weed 
Management Practices on Weed Drymatter, Weed 
Indices and Yield of Bt Cotton. International Journal 
of Pure and Applied Bioscience. 5(4): 1945-1950. 
Mani V. S., Mala M. L., Gautam K. C. & Bhagavandas 
(1973). Weed-killing chemicals in potato cultivation. 
India Farming. 23: 7-13. 
Marín C. & Weiner J. (2014). Effects of density and sowing 
pattern on weed suppression and grain yield in three 
Tran Thi Thiem et al. (2020) 
https://vjas.vnua.edu.vn/ 797 
varieties of maize under high weed pressure. Weed 
Research. 54(5): 467-474. 
Matta S. E. G., Khedr E. A. F., Mehgoub G. M. A. & Shelby 
M. A. K. (1990). Effect of plant population density and 
nitrogen fertilization on growth and yield of some late 
maturing maize variety. Egyptian Journal Applied 
Science. 5(8): 519-532. 
Murphy S. D., Yakubu Y., Wise S. F. & Swanton C. J. 
(1996). Effect of planting patterns and inter-row 
cultivation on competition between corn (Zea mays) 
and late emerging weeds. Weed Science. 44: 865-870. 
Nguyen V. L., Nguyen T. H., Nguyen V. L, Dinh T. H. & 
Nguyen T. N. (2009). Effects of different plant 
densities on yield and quality of hybrid baby corn. 
Journal of Science and Development. 7 (Eng. Iss. 2): 
202-208. 
Nguyen V. L. (2016). Study on growth, yield and heterosis 
of vegetable corn hybrids. Vietnam Journal 
Agricultural Science. 14(4): 501-509. 
Nguyen Van Loc & Nguyen Van Minh (2019). Using 
organic pots and granulated compound fertilizer 
application for HN88 waxy maize variety. Tay Nguyen 
Journal of Science. 39: 38-47 (in Vietnamese). 
Shapiro C. A. & Wortmann C. S. (2006). Corn response to 
nitrogen rate, row spacing and plant density in Eastern 
Nebraska. Agronomy Journal. 98: 529-535. 
Suk J. K., Yong W. K., Duong V. C. & Hoang A. C. (2005). 
Common weeds in Vietnam (2nd ed.). Saigon Plant 
Protection State Limited Company. 
Timlin D. J., Fleisher D. H., Kemanian A. R & Reddy V. 
R. (2014). Plant density and leaf area index effects on 
the distribution of light transmittance to the soil surface 
in Maize. Agronomy Journal. 106(5): 1828-1837. 
Valentinuz O. R. & Tollenaar M. (2006). Effect of 
genotype, nitrogen, plant density and row spacing on 
the area per leaf profile in maize. Agronomy Journal. 
98: 94-99. 
Vu D. H. & Ha T. T. B. (2015). Effect of maize-soybean 
intercropping and hand weeding on weed control. 
Journal of Science and Development. 13(3): 354-363. 
Weiner J., Griepentrog H. W. & Kristensen L. (2001). 
Suppression of weeds by spring wheat (Triticum 
aestivum) increases with crop density and spatial 
uniformity. Journal of Applied Ecology. 38: 784-790. 
Youngerman C. Z., Tommaso A. D., Curran W. S., Mirsky 
S. B. & Ryan M. R. (2018). Corn density effect on 
interseeded cover crops, weeds and grain yield. 
Agronomy. 110(6): 2478-2488.