Agronomic practices that help the farmer raise the yield and reduce costs must be studied to ensure the sustainability of agriculture. Thinking about it, an experiment was conducted to study the effect of soil management, nitrogen fertilization and the row spacing in maize crop. It was developed in Distrophic Red Latossol. The experimental design was randomized in split plot in a factorial 3 x 5 x 2 with 4 repetitions. The treatments were constituted by the combination of three soil managements (plow harrow + "floating harrows", chisel +" floating harrows" and no tillage), five times of nitrogen supply [control without N, 120 kg ha-1 at sowing (S), 120 kg ha-1 at V6 stage, 30 kg ha-1 (S) + 90 kg ha-1 at V6, 30 kg ha-1 (S) + 45 kg ha-1 at V4 + 45 kg ha-1 at V8] and two row spacings (0.45 and 0.90 m) with the same plants stand. It was concluded that the no tillage system promotes better plant population, and higher grain yield; the nitrogen supply only at sowing promoted grain yield similar to the treatments that the N was divided; the 0.90 m row spacing promoted greater plant stand when the soil management was done with plow harrow + "floating harrow".
Zea mays; soil management; arrangement of plants; fertilization
