2.2 Climatic data of the experimental area
Meteorological data for the growing seasons are provided in Table 1. The long-term annual mean temperature, relative humidity, total annual precipitation, wind speed and sunshine duration per day in the area were 12.4 °C, 55%, 524.4 mm, 2.4 m s−1 and 7.6 h, respectively. During the vegetative periods (from April to end of August) of the years 2011 and 2012, an average temperature of 18.5 and 19.2 °C, total precipitation of 162.4 and 214.1 mm and an average relative humidity of 56.2 and 50.8% were recorded, respectively. While, average temperature and relative humidity data of maize growing seasons were similar to long-term meteorological data, except two years precipitations were higher than long-term averages.