Effect of abiotic stress factors on the chlorophyll content of inbred maize lines

Inbred maize lines were treated with normal and double rates of post-emergence herbicides in a small-plot field experiment in one dry and one wet year. The chlorophyll a + b content of symptom-free ear-leaves was determined using a spectrophotometer after 50% silking in order to determine whether various rates of post-emergence herbicides had any effect on the chlorophyll content at flowering and how this was influenced by the type of year. The chlorophyll a + b content of the inbred lines was greatly dependent on the year, with values twice as high in the wet year as in the dry year. Treatment with tembotrione + isoxadifen-ethyl had no effect on the chlorophyll content in either year. Both rates of mesotrione + terbutylazine reduced the chlorophyll a + b content of one stress-sensitive inbred line in the dry year, but not in the wet year. In the wet year bentazone + dicamba increased the chlorophyll content, but only for one line was this effect significant irrespective of the dose. In the dry year the double dose caused a significant increase in this genotype, but the chlorophyll contents of the other lines did not differ significantly from the control.